Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom
by Monou Hakkai
Summary: Cardcaptor Sakura x SM. Makoto has a strange dream about a young girl who has magical cards and a star wand. What is the connection between these two? Why is Makoto having this dream?
1. ch 1

Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 1 

By: Makoto Almasy 

Rating: PG

Summary: Card Captor Sakura/SM.  Makoto has a strange dream about a young girl who has magical cards and a star wand.  What is the connection between these two? Why is Makoto having this dream?

Disclaimer: Clamp owns CCS and Naoko-san owns SM.

AN: Don't be surprised about people being OOC because this is the first time I'm writing about Card Captor Sakura.  Do check whether the Japanese names are correct too ^^;;.

****

Makoto could feel her body's system slow down like a train engine as she lay peacefully underneath her bed covers.  The muscles in her arms started to relax and dropped lazily on both sides of her large pillow.  Everything happened so quickly when she began to drift into her usual ten-hour slumber.  Her eyelids stilled and her abdomen went into a steady rhythm.  Even when still wide awake with her eyes closed, she could never tell when she was really asleep so easily because the dream-state always kicked in at such good times.  Learning about one's own body had so many mysteries, didn't it?

Biology wasn't Makoto's favourite subject of course.  Maybe it would be one of Ami's.  Mizuno Ami loved mathematics and all three different science subjects that she would sit in the dark for countless hours to read through a huge pile of books and probably memorise each paragraph on each page.  She was definitely the most studious female among Makoto's friends.  The only time Makoto was like her was in cooking or housework.  

She could clean her apartment in less than three hours if she worked non-stop without interruptions.  Makoto was seldom lazy with these chores.  If she had to, she sometimes helped Usagi do the housework in her house and it never bothered her at all.  In fact she was normally willing to help her best friend out and it truly surprised Usagi's parents a lot even when it was the weekend and teens were supposed to either be having fun or doing homework.

Makoto always missed the tiny moment when the dream state came to life.  As soon as her eyes would close and her body would switch off, she'd be in some other universe, experiencing either a nightmare or a heavenly land.  For this dream she wasn't sure what the sensation would be.  Her surrounding seemed…silent.  There was no life showing upon her and no colour at all.  

The sky was pitch black without any twinkling stars and the air wasn't hot or cold.  Makoto couldn't sense the temperature or any life signs.  

"What are you thinking? Dreams are like this.  You have to wait until something happens.  Be patient," She always reminded herself before bedtime every night.  She spotted a long pathway, which seemed to be a good start to her dream, and used this direction to begin her dreamy journey.

The path she walked through so far didn't have any buildings showing up or any bright colours popping up in front of her eyes.  This was going to be a very quite and boring dream for Makoto.  Occasionally she would have nice dreams where her cooking was always spot on and delicious or where she'd be cooking for a handsome older man in his house and said her food was just perfect.  Those were the usual good dreams she had each night.  

Though when it was bad, she would be falling from a plane or off a cliff.  Or…even come close to vomiting in a fast speeding plane.  Planes weren't Makoto's favourite travel transports.  That phobia was something she couldn't get rid of magically.  It was hard to travel to different countries when you feared planes so much.  To make herself feel better she would just refuse to go on holiday with her friends and let them have the fun.  Makoto preferably wanted to stay or travel somewhere in Japan rather than a whole new country or continent.  

Gladly her friends didn't mind about Makoto's excuse to not travel faraway on a plane.  Besides one had to expect new Youmas coming out from hiding anytime soon and someone had to be on guard in Juuban and the whole of Japan, didn't they? This is too quiet.  I want to see some life here Makoto moaned as she found herself continuing to walk straight ahead on the pathway.  Why weren't there any flowers blooming in the ground? More importantly where was the bright green grass?

This was going to turn into a nightmare, wasn't it? Who knows? This could be the beginning of an endless maze.  Dammit Makoto you've been watching too much of Labyrinth She shook her head shamefully and forced out the reluctance inside of her to leave while she resumed her ongoing walk.  The soles of her feet suddenly ached and literally pierced through the flatness of her favourite leather shoes.  Her feet would hurt more if she wore high heels.  Thank god she was tall for her age and wasn't fussy about her height like a minority of tiny people.

Makoto developed an urge to run as fast as she could to speed time up and instantly her feet went into a simple sprint.  She was on the move.  And it didn't tire her out like it should do in five minutes.  That was what was cool about being in a dream.  Rarely would you be tired if sprinting in a dream.  It would take longer for exhaustion to kick in inside your body.  Maybe if she ran then the dream would turn out differently.  Or perhaps take her to another scene where she could see familiar faces.  That was her goal tonight in this dream world.       

She was happy that she wasn't tired yet.  Because she had lost count of how many minutes she had been running down the same path.  It seemed to have no end whatsoever.  How long could she handle this? Would she have to wait until she woke up from her sleep to end this non-stop walking? Repeating the words 'Wake up' over a dozen times wouldn't do the trick.  Especially if you were in the middle of a good dream.  But duh! This wasn't becoming a dream yet.  In fact it may not be a dream at all.

There has to be something here.  Or even someone I can talk to! Oh come on PLEASE! Makoto wanted to scream a name out loud so somebody could come to her and talk for hours.  Just to please her sleep until she wakes up for a glorious morning.  Nevertheless Makoto pushed herself to keep running till something popped out from nowhere to surprise her I'm gonna have one bad dream eventually.  

Her feet kept on going although her mind insisted she take a rest and wait till the alarm clock rang.  Why the hell should she? She was here to dream and have fun in another world – to get away from the real events happening in her life.  She wanted to get rid of the tiredness from housework and studying.  Shouldn't she deserve it? Maybe someone like Usagi had too much sleep and relaxation, which was why she sometimes ended up being late to school every weekday.

To her utmost shock, Makoto realised her feet weren't touching the ground.  Why was that? She looked down carefully and a tiny gulp soared into her throat.  The long pathway she had become attached to from running had suddenly vanished.  This was another thing that happened in dreams.  Scenarios change quickly while you're doing something else and an alteration just comes up unexpectedly.        

When something like this came up in a cartoon series the main character would either drop dead to the ground straightaway or magically float in the air with wings.  But Makoto thought she'd be the former (as most cartoon characters would).  And sadly her prediction came true.  Her balance vanished within her and Makoto's body dramatically dropped downwards like she was a heavy ton of bricks.  

Her ponytail flew across her face as she descended speedily.  

"OH WHY?" Makoto screamed and covered her face while she let herself drop to whatever was down on the ground.  She didn't care what was below her feet.  It was important for her to have a safe landing and that was it.  She couldn't understand why she wanted a safe landing.  She would wake up anytime to relieve herself of her intensity, right?

However it didn't seem like she had woken up from her dream.  No she was still here in this world.  Her hands still covered her face carefully and she was on her knees, crouching and touching the hardness of the floor.  So she did have a safe landing.  That sure was quick.  Next time buy a dream book and analyse, Mako-chan Makoto removed her hands off her face and straightened her figure.

She scanned the surroundings to spot various changes.  Oh there were definitely changes all right.  This was a whole new world.  Not like before when she was in the dark, eerie land with only a long pathway that seemed to have no end when in fact it did, which Makoto had found out the hard way.  Thick clouds hid the azure shade of the sky and tall trees enveloped the large field standing forth.  

Where the hell was she? Whose garden was this, if it was a garden? Makoto wasn't sure if she was allowed to even be here at all.  She almost stumbled backwards when she blinked twice to see where she was standing.  This wasn't a garden after all.  It was actually a hill, leading away from a large town straight ahead.  Makoto could see every single building from here and it was indeed similar to Juuban.  

From her senses, Makoto could tell this wasn't Juuban even though this town had the same sized buildings and widespread capacity.  This town appeared to have a more public area.  The hill she was standing on must come from a local park because she could spot a playground from the corner of her left eye.  What was she doing here? Why did her dream take her to a town like this?

So many questions were unanswered and Makoto wasn't sure how to get the responses.  Looks like she had to find out herself, right? She walked towards the playground and jumped back when she saw how large the penguin shaped slide appeared to be in a zoomed up perspective.  She had to find out where she was.  It was tempting to go on the swings or move on the slide but Makoto knew she had to be serious here.  This dream may have a reason for creating this town and curiosity was eating into her guts.

She managed to find the park sign and keenly read each word.  The main word that stuck out to her face was 'TOMOEDA.' Tomoeda? That's a town quite far from Juuban Makoto glanced to the outer appearance of the town It's kinda nice too.  Surely this couldn't be an out of body experience.  If it was, she would have seen her own body from the ceiling of her own bedroom.

A swift flash of light travelled across her nose to cut off her stare at the park sign.  Makoto turned to her left to see who or what just did that.  The light that passed her seemed to be a strong beam.  What could it be? Was it magic? This dream was intriguing her more and more as she looked around to see what was going on.  A running figure pushed past her abruptly, tempting her to punch the person who rudely forgot to say 'Excuse me.' But it appeared that this person was in a rush.

Makoto caught sight of a young girl in an outrageously colourful costume – one, which was definitely considered fancy dress and different to her Sailor fuku.  The girl held a long pink staff with a star on the end and she stopped running when she saw an object stop in the air above the girl.  Two other shadowy figures stopped alongside her.  Both of them had wings.  One had a look of a beast on four feet whilst the other seemed to be human.  

It was too hard to see what they really looked like underneath the red coloured sun.  What was it in the air? Makoto wondered.  Her eyes focused on the object and discovered it was a flying…bicycle.  Its wheels rolled round and round violently and the young girl wasn't able to get near it.  Makoto went into a shocked trance as the mysterious female floated on her heels to soar into the air and chant something loudly at the flying bicycle, holding what appeared to be a card.

Lightning formed into the sky.  Huh? How did she…? How did she create lightning? Is she a magician? Makoto thought in awe.  She knew she wasn't in her Sailor fuku so it wasn't she who called upon thunder.  As the lightning strike attacked the aggressive bike, a strange smoke vanished off the object and the bike simply dropped to the ground in a loud clatter.  The lightning had also disappeared and the unknown girl slowly landed to the ground as well.  She smiled at her card and then turned to her allies.

Makoto still wasn't able to see who they were though her impressions told her that these people weren't from around here.  Then again she was a Sailor Senshi and she was used to meeting with different beings.  Maybe they were on the same side as her.  She wouldn't know.  Makoto watched the three mysterious figures talk to each other Who are they?.  Her thinking trance somehow caught the attention of the tallest figure who lifted his head up to look at Makoto.  His wings fluttered against the tiny gust forming around him.  For sure Makoto could tell he had very long hair.  Was he the girl's guardian angel? 

Soon all three of the strangers noticed her presence and looked at her unusually.  Perhaps she was a witness of something that shouldn't have been seen.  If only she could see them.  Or talk to them.  But there wasn't time to think about that.  Because Makoto's alarm clock had rung suddenly and that opened her eyes to the beginning of Monday morning.  This didn't feel like a dream at all.  Dreams that had a realistic sensation always put Makoto into a deep thinking state.  What was she to do now? 

She did think about buying a dream book to analyse her dreams but that may not be enough.  This dream was something new to her.  The three figures were looking at her for a reason.  And she wanted to know who this girl was.  Who had the power to use cards? She hadn't been reading any fantasy books in ages and there was no influence from that.  This couldn't involve destiny, could it? Did she have to go to Tomoeda to find out for herself? Makoto had to tell someone about this dream.  And her friends would be the right people.   

TBC. 


	2. ch 2

Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 2

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Neither characters included are mine. 

AN: I forgot to mention that I've only seen most of the English dubbed episodes of Card Captor Sakura so I've had to go to various sites to learn more.  

****

The minute Rei slid her shrine doors open a charging force went straight at her sleepy figure.  She didn't have time to yawn when the visitor came inside and immediately sat by the low table in the living room.  Ami and Minako were already sitting by the table since they too received an urgent call from a wide-awake Makoto this morning.  They didn't have a chance to even yawn properly at all and didn't want to show their sleepiness around their curious friend.

 "Is all this from your dream?" Rei asked in puzzlement after Makoto babbled her entire dream in a very fast speed at five minutes.  Ami and Minako had the same expression as their Shinto friend as they glanced at Makoto.   

"Oh you bet it is!" She banged her fists on the table as if she had caused a tiny earthquake barely detectable on the Richter scale.  The cups sitting quietly in front of her friends vibrated and nearly lost their balance.  The other three hadn't seen Makoto act this excited before.  Sure she was tough and aggressive but this morning showed she desperately wanted to get a message across to her friends.  Makoto quickly apologized and slapped her hands to punish herself.  

"Like I said," She went on slowly, "This dream gives me the creeps you know.  Don't you just hate 'falling' dreams? One minute I was running along this path in pitch-blackness then the next minute I'm falling into another place at top speed.  I'm in a place, which claims to be Tomoeda.  A-and I see this girl who has magical powers and controlling these cards.  Plus I see she has two beasts by her side.  Something tells me this is no ordinary dream.  I'm telling you the books I read haven't been influencing my dreams like it usually would."

"Did you see who this girl was?" Ami questioned.

Makoto shook her head uncertainly, "I told you, I couldn't see her face.  I know she's young.  Maybe twelve years old at least.  It looked like she was dressed up for a birthday party.  It was weirder than our Sailor fukus." She ascended from her seat, "Look I really want to know what this dream means.  It's driving me mad! I'd like to know who these people are.  I'm sure they're real."

"Well Tomoeda is an existing town.  I've seen it on the local map of Tokyo," Minako added, "But why does Tomoeda appear in your dream, Mako-chan? Why not Osaka or somewhere else in Japan?" What was it that intrigued Makoto about Tomoeda? Surely there was something.  It wasn't like a ghost town, was it? The vision she had in the dream showed it looked just as normal as Juuban.  Could the public be giving her a message? What was with the three figures appearing? Were they supposed to be there or was it her imagination?

No! How could it come from Makoto's imagination? She wasn't a professional writer.  Her mind didn't possess obsessions with wizards, elves or dragons.  She rarely read fantasy books.  A little voice told her that this girl might be special.  Special in what? Who was this young girl? I have to find out who she is.  I don't wanna be a stalker.  Otherwise I'd be in deep trouble Makoto thought.  

If she wanted to find out who this girl was, it would be best for her to start by visiting Tomoeda and staying there for a few days.  It was likely that she lived there.  The problem was how was Makoto going to make an excuse from school to head to this town? OK so her grades weren't at the top like Ami's but she was settling in at school and hadn't had too many fights with boys.  Perhaps immaturity had left everyone when they reached the age of sixteen or seventeen.  Thank goodness.  It meant a chance for Makoto to totally brush up her cooking ability and study peacefully without fights.  

How long could this go on for? Would it all come back once she reached the age of college entry? Makoto wouldn't know.  She couldn't see the future.  She wasn't even psychic.  Makoto told herself she shouldn't be concerned about the future.  She had to work on this dream mystery before thinking about college.  What bugged her was how was she going to skip lessons and catch up later?

The conversation about Makoto's dream continued as the four Inner Senshi made their way to school together.  Rei's school appeared first and she made her way inside, turning around to say bye to her friends before running into the main building.  

As the remaining three walked, Makoto was trying to think of holiday destinations as her excuse to skip at least a whole week of school.  She thought about dreamy places like Tenerife or somewhere huge like America.  Thinking about skipping school for a silly reason made Minako excited and she wouldn't stop saying how it would be great to visit the Eiffel Tower in Paris and stand at the top to see the whole of France. 

"You're going to miss out on lots of learning, Mako-chan.  Especially when we've nearly finished high school," Ami warned her, interrupting the excitement in Minako. "What will the teachers say? You can't just say you want to go on holiday.  That won't be believable." 

"I have a feeling someone is waiting for me in Tomoeda and this girl has something to do with that.  My mind is in too much curiosity," Makoto explained honestly, "What if the dream has a connection to my Sailor Senshi past?" This brought everyone's attention in place and they stopped walking as they stood a few feet away from the school gate.  It took them a while to finally say those two words.  Makoto had those words in her mind but didn't want to jump straight to the fact there could be connections to her past.  That was a good possibility though.  

"I know we've moved on in our lives and don't remember our past well but…this may be the only chance I'll ever get to understand who I really was when we all served Princess Serenity.  You see where I'm coming, right?" Makoto inhaled with relief when she saw her friends nod understandably.  These girls weren't friends pointlessly now, were they? "OK I've just got to find a way to get to Tomoeda without too much trouble.  I'll give myself a week to solve everything.  That should be enough.  Damn I sound like a criminal planning her escape from prison." 

"Hee-hee, school *is* like a prison," Minako joked.  Everyone laughed altogether.  "Don't worry, Mako we'll cover you up for the rest of the week.  Just go to Tomoeda when you have to.  I'll see you around." She ran past the tennis courts, leaving Ami and Makoto to walk together towards the science block.  

"I've got biology now so I'll talk to you at break, ok?" Ami added and scampered away.  

Makoto didn't have science lessons today.  Instead she had history.  She sighed and walked up the stairs to the back door leading to the history department of the school.  This dream, whatever it was supposed to convey, just wouldn't leave her mind at all.  At least there wasn't much mystery after she spoke to her friends about this.  They made her feel at ease when they discussed something that screamed out of this world.

Well some things were bound to be like that, particularly as they were the Sailor Senshi.  Even though there were no Youmas on the loose, they had to be extra cautious when they were on patrol among Juuban.  They still had to be protective no matter what the consequences.  What if the dream was telling Makoto that a new evil would challenge her? Should she be afraid? Why should she? *Most* of the time Makoto was beyond fearless.  

She could handle ten Youmas if she was confident enough.  Her aggressive mind halted when she looked at the large notice on the wall.  She tiptoed silently towards the cream colored poster and read the capital fonts.  This was totally weird  - as well as interesting.  The main heading said, "VISIT TOMOEDA TOWN TO TRAIN  & WORK IN THE BEST FAST FOOD RESTAURANT FOR FREE.  STUDENTS TAKING HOME ECONOMICS WILL BE ALLOWED ON THIS TRAINING COURSE.  PLEASE SPEAK TO HIKARU-SENSEI FOR MORE DETAILS." 

Could her imagination be fooling her or was this for real? The poster was saying people could work in this restaurant and earn money.  There was no mention of fees, which could certainly be a catch, right? Makoto ran to the staff room as fast as she could, knowing she was ten minutes late for history.  Hopefully there will still be more spaces left.  This was the perfect opportunity for her to go to this town and investigate her dream by herself.  Nobody would care.  All she had to do was work and sight see.

This was the school's arrangement.  Hence it would mean she was under school supervision and wouldn't be in any trouble for missing lessons because she would have a good excuse.  She could keep up with everything if Ami was willing to send her the latest notes.  Makoto knocked on the staff room door loudly; praying that Hikaru-sensei was in.  Please be in, she kept saying.  Her feet tapped nervously on the slippery floor.

As the door opened, Makoto said, "I need to speak to Hikaru-sensei now.  It's about the trip to Tomoeda." The female teacher, who looked like a pointy nosed witch in her forties, nodded solemnly and went inside to fetch Hikaru-sensei.  Oh dear god she was really late for history.  People might think she was purposely skipping the class to do something stupid.  Well…she was, wasn't she?

Hikaru-sensei was a young female in her late thirties.  Pretty much a similar twin to Haruna-Sensei, who was usually angry about Usagi's appalling grades in arithmetic tests.  Makoto slapped her hands together in a begging motion and began to ask about the poster she saw.  

"Sorry, Makoto but there are no more spaces left.  The maximum number we allow is twenty," Hikaru-Sensei said.  Makoto quietly swore under her breath and lifted her head up to face the Home Economics teacher sadly.  What other reason could she give to go to Tomoeda? Here she was, begging like crazy to go to this town…because of what she saw from her dream.  Her teacher would think this girl was stupid if Makoto told her the reason to go to Tomoeda. 

"Makoto I know you're one of the top students in my class but it surprises me that you tell me in the last minute.  I thought you would be one of the first people to apply but it's too late unfortunately," Hikaru-sensei stated disappointingly.  Wow most of the Home Economics teacher were all saying Makoto was their favorite student.  So this was what it was like to be a Teacher's Pet.  Makoto did love cooking and it must have boosted her grades in this subject.  

She had the feeling she let her teacher down for not informing her immediately about this great trip.  She had no idea when the poster came out in the first place.  Oh of course.  There was a reason for that.  Makoto was with her friends all week after school, having fun together and forgetting about the inconvenience school gave to everybody.  The fun must have made her forget about any events happening in school, which included the likely trip to Tomoeda.  

She must have seen the poster already but like most people, she completely ignored it and went straight to her lessons without taking a proper read at it.

"OK I was busy last week.  I had no idea the poster was on there," Makoto admitted.  

"I thought you saw the poster last Friday.  I saw you walk straight past it and assumed you weren't interested.  Quite unlike you to do that when it involves cooking.  You'd probably earn the most out of the twenty applicants," Hikaru-sensei smiled.  Damn so I did see the poster.  Stupid! Makoto thought and grabbed Hikaru-sensei's arms.

"Please let me go.  I wasn't myself last week.  I had tons of work to do and I was trying to work out a homework timetable and breezed my eyes off the poster without realizing.  I was in a deep studying trance," She didn't care if she sounded stupid.  She wanted to go on this trip.  For two reasons.  The dream and to experience working.  "PLEASE!!!" Her eyes gleamed in desperation.  Hikaru-sensei frowned at her student.  Makoto loosened her grip when she saw she was digging into her teacher's arms deeply.  Steady on, karate maniac.  

"Well…you're the last person to ask me," Hikaru-sensei pondered, "And since you're one of my students I don't see why you shouldn't go.  You'll blow away the manager with your high speed cooking skills." She moved back in a startled manner when Makoto banged her fists together victoriously.   "I'll inform your teachers about your absence.  You'll still be studying at the local school in Tomoeda as visiting students so there shouldn't be a worry about being behind in lessons.  The school over there has the same syllabus as we do.  I'll put your name down right away." 

Smiling in the last minute at Makoto, Hikaru-sensei closed the door to the staff room.  Thank you so much, Sensei! Makoto honorably bowed at the quiet doorway.  Whoever wanted to see her in Tomoeda wasn't going to wait for long.  Because Makoto was coming very soon.  Actually…she was going tomorrow.  That was when the trip was about to begin.  Oh she couldn't wait.

TBC. 


	3. ch 3

Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 3

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Nothing's mine.

AN: This chapter includes some of the CCS characters this time.  Here goes…

****

Kinomoto Sakura wasn't sure how to react when she let her tiny arm be dragged off by her best friend Daidouji Tomoyo into the local cafe 'Chez Nori.' This was the place almost every single person in Tomoeda enjoyed coming to after a long day's work at a job or an everlastingly boring day at school.  It was voted as one of the highly recommended places to eat and relax locally.  And people thought the surface was very sufficient.

The staff was friendly and rarely did they ever get complaints from any customer coming in to order food.  Secondly the staff had a varied age range from 17-30.  This was what made Chez Nori individual, compared to normal busy fast food companies like McDonalds.  Most of the staff also went to the local school in Tomoeda.  That even included Tsukishiro Yukito, the best friend of Sakura's older brother Touya.  

"Wow check it out.  It isn't normally this busy on a Monday," Tomoyo said.

"Yeah, I know.  I wonder what's going on," Sakura replied, "Oh I think Yukito is working today." She felt her round cheeks colour into a bright pink when she spotted Yukito talking to a colleague behind the counter while she stood at the back of the queue.  She always loved seeing his bright, innocent smile.  It just made her day so much happier.  Before finding out about Yue's presence, it was hard for him to act as normal as usual while suffering unexplainable black outs and unusual tiredness at school.  Sakura couldn't easily explain who he really was face to face and she didn't want to cause a lot of suspicion around Touya either.   

The front customers immediately buzzed away and Sakura and Tomoyo approached the counter to take their order.  To their surprise and joy, Yukito came to the counter and greeted them.

"Hiya, Sakura.  Hey Tomoyo.  What can I get you both?" He waved his hand to say hello.

Sakura flashed a shy smile at him, "I'm not that hungry so I'll just have a large strawberry milkshake to share with Tomoyo."

"Why not try the new cherry cream cake too? Everyone said it's really nice," Yukito suggested, "You don't have to pay a lot, it's okay." So that was why the queues were extensively long today.  The customers must have heard about the promotion of delicious cherry cream cake and wanted to try it for themselves.  It seemed that this dish proved to be very popular indeed.  Well if it really was yummy then it would most likely impress Kero-chan's taste buds too.

Sakura could see Kero-chan drool at the sight of white cream and red cherries decorated on top.  It could probably be enough as his lunch and dinner for someone who had a big appetite.  

"OK, we'll also have one cherry cream cake for each of us please," She ordered.  

"One large strawberry milkshake and two cherry cream cakes coming up." Yukito took the tiny coins on the counter and dropped them into the cashier till before turning his back to begin making the ordered foods.  Lots of children's voices boomed against the walls, all begging for more of this new dessert and repeatedly saying how wonderful it tasted.

"Hey Sakura." 

A familiarly deep voice jumped behind her and Tomoyo.  

"Touya? I…I didn't know you worked here," Sakura squealed in shock when she saw her brother appear closely nearby.  Like Yukito, he was wearing the Chez Nori uniform, which consisted of a grey cap, green shirt and navy trousers.  Out of the house, Sakura often saw her brother working in the shops or anywhere else public.  He actively worked and earned his money to help their father out.  And it was all worth it since their mother, Nadesico died long ago.  Fujitaka was truly proud of the discipline his children had given around the house.

"Sakura, my last jobs were only temporary contracts.  They're not the same as Dad's job.  I started here last week," Touya explained briefly then grimaced a little when he saw his sister's face look at him strangely, "Ah don't worry about it.  You'll see what I mean once you get to my age.  Hey Yukito, do you need a hand?" 

"Nah I'm okay," Yukito replied as he finished squeezing the milkshake pump into the king sized cup.  He placed a straw into the lid and passed it gently towards Sakura, whose face popped out from the bottom of the counter.  

"What are you eating, monster?" Touya asked jokingly as he looked at his sister and a quietly laughing Tomoyo.  Sakura growled at the usual insult from her older brother but dismissed herself from releasing a loud groan at him and told him the order she gave to Yukito.  "Just like everyone else, huh? Before they were too full to try any dessert after eating their fries and burgers and now they really like this new food."

"Touya, didn't you know? Oh I forgot you only arrived here five minutes and missed the introduction of the new chefs," Yukito summarised when he came back to the front with two plates of sliced cherry cream cake. "Here you are.  Two cherry cream cakes."

"Thanks," Sakura and Tomoyo said together and took their food away.

"How many people cooked this?" Touya asked curiously, referring to the bright red dessert in his sister's hands.  He looked down at Sakura and Tomoyo to hear them licking their tongues and saying 'Yummy' in their throats.  The entire café was saying the same thing as a matter of fact.  Whoever cooked this must have one heck of talent in making cakes.  Yukito mentioned that only one person made every cake in the kitchen.  That couldn't be true.  How could one person actually make all this in one day? Touya frowned.

"Oh don't get the wrong idea.  What I meant was that the main chef decided on the same recipe and taught everyone inside how to do it.  She is a really good chef," Yukito said further.

"Who is 'she'?" Touya urged.  He had already seen some new faces when he came in today but couldn't tell who this main chef was from first glance around the café.    

"That's her." Yukito pointed to the new figure serving a mother and daughter two counters away from where he and Touya stood.  Her brown ponytail flung freely underneath the thin grey cap while she smiled at the customer and told them to enjoy their cakes.  Touya saw her grin happily after the mother and daughter left the counter.  Was this the super cook? He lowered the intensity of his stare when she turned to see the two boys and moved over to see them.  Touya could see she was only a head shorter than Yukito.

"Makoto, this is my best friend Kinomoto Touya. "Yukito gestured to his tall, ebony haired friend.  "Touya this is Kino Makoto.  She's one of twenty students who study at Juuban High.  They're doing a special training course here for a week."

The slim brunette haired girl scratched the back of her head embarrassingly, "My friends said I should think up a good recipe and I suddenly came up with the cherry cream cake.  Simple and boring but it seems that people like it.  Talk about surprises." She picked up a tiny saucer with a cake slice and offered it to Touya. "Here, you can try one." 

Touya couldn't help a sensation of utmost surprise flip inside as he observed the eager-looking expression on the new girl's face when she passed him the saucer of cake.  It did look very tempting to eat.  Maybe this was what attracted the younger customers to try it out.  Because of the rich red cherries and purely white surface.  Makoto's growing smile made him more tempted to try the food and he reached for the cake to taste it in a small nibble.  Oh…it wasn't so bad.  Actually Touya liked it.  The top layer of his tongue happily tasted the creamy middle part.  

"Hmm…this is quite good," He mumbled through a mouthful, "Wow, is there any more?" In a minute he had finished the cake slice and held an empty saucer keenly.

"See, told you he would like it. Everyone said your cake was good," Yukito whispered to Makoto who prevented a shy chortle escape her lips.  A feminine voice called Touya's name softly and Makoto, Touya and Yukito turned around.  Makoto saw the two friends face downward at the person, guessing whoever it was had a very miniature height than hers.  The first thought that came to Makoto's mind was 'That girl looks so sweet.' If she hadn't heard incorrectly, Makoto heard the girl say big brother to Touya.  Oh she was his sister, was she?        

They didn't look alike as much.  This sweet little girl had brown hair and such large emerald eyes.  Almost the same green as Makoto's own eyes.  A cute grin smothered nicely with the rest of her sweet appearance.  She didn't have the same jet-black hair or dark brown irises as her brother did.    

"Sakura, you don't have to make dinner when you get back.  I'll make my own food, ok?" Touya said to her.

"If you say so," Sakura replied, "See you Yukito." Waving to Yukito, she skipped out of Chez Nori with her other tiny friend whose long ebony hair was tied back in a loose ponytail.  This time Makoto could feel herself laugh as she saw the two girls leave, pondering on how Touya's sister was able to keep a bright smile on her round-shaped face.  Was she popular at school for always being cheery? It wouldn't surprise Makoto.  From seeing the back of Sakura's head, Makoto felt a sudden punching feeling from the back of her head.  

Her brain had had an interesting thought.  That usually happened when she was in thinking mode.  Or did that always happen to humans' cerebrals? The shape of Sakura's head looked oddly familiar.  And Makoto's memories cast back to her previous dream in Juuban.  Oh goodness, it couldn't be Sakura, could it? The girl she saw in Tomoeda Park had Sakura's hairstyle and same height.  Though somehow Makoto couldn't picture Kinomoto Sakura in bright coloured costumes like she envisioned in the dream.  It wouldn't suit a cute girl like her.  

This is my second day here.  I'll have to see everything and everyone before I make assumptions Makoto thought decidedly.

"Hey, are you okay?" Touya's voice pulled her out of her thoughts.  She shook her head thoroughly to pay attention back to the present moment.  She had indulged her mind deeply for a few minutes that she didn't notice Touya and Yukito chewing away on her cherry cake.  She was glad she didn't put too much sugar into the mixture.  Otherwise parents would be coming over and complaining about their children losing nearly all their teeth in less than a month from overeating on the cake. 

"Makoto, do you cook for a living? Not even my dad could compete at this cooking level," Touya said amazingly.

"Oh uh I learnt cooking by myself," She admitted, "No-one taught me anything.  Everything I learnt came from books most of the time."

"What about your parents? Didn't they teach you how to cook?" Yukito added.  Her eyes enlarged at what he mentioned and she sighed quietly, lowering her head sadly.  

"Oh my parents died when I was young.  Plane accident." She turned away and tapped her heel on the floor depressively.  Yukito and Touya uncomfortably looked at each other then back at Makoto.  They knew they hit a rather personal spot in her accidentally.

"Sorry I didn't realise you…gosh forget I asked in the first place, Makoto." Yukito's apologetic gaze lightened with a gentle smile, "Anyway since you've done so much work on your first day, you can go home now, if you like.  Touya and I can take care of things."

"Oh okay then.  Besides I have to get ready for tomorrow." Makoto winked and went to the cloakroom to grab her jacket and bag.

"Tomorrow?" Touya asked, he and Yukito following her.  

"We'll be temporarily studying at your school throughout our week of training.  It's the best way to keep up with our work.  My teachers said your syllabus is the same as ours.  It shouldn't be a problem for us," She accounted confidently, slowly walking away from them.  "I might see you around the school tomorrow, huh?"

"Oh yeah sure. We'll see you tomorrow then, Makoto," Touya called after her while her slim figure began to shrink at the front doors of Chez Nori.

"Nice talking to you," Yukito said afterwards.  Makoto still had her back turned as she lifted a happy thumbs-up gesture to them before leaving through the two double doors.  "She is friendly, isn't she?" He expected Touya to say something in agreement but instead got a low 'hmm' as a response.  His best friend stared erectly to the stationary doors that the new girl had walked through.  Usually when Touya looked like that, Yukito guessed he had something on his mind.  Something that included curiosity.  

He even gave Yukito the same look before meeting Yue in person, which used to puzzle Yukito each time.  What was on his mind?

"Touya, what's wrong?" His best friend questioned worriedly.  Dark auburn orbs turned to Yukito, still with the same emotionless gaze.

"It's nothing," Touya spoke normally again.  Oh but there was something wrong.  Although Touya no longer had his spiritual powers, which were given to Yue, becoming suspicious was something he always had inside of him and wasn't considered supernatural.  He saw the way Makoto stared at his sister.  As if she recognised her somewhere.  What if she was from another world and wanted to hurt Sakura? Touya thought his sister would be safe from now on.  

Though it looked like that wasn't going to happen.  So what if this Kino Makoto was nice.  He didn't want to see somebody else try to go near his younger sister to hurt her at all.  Makoto's look made him think she was very different from everyone else. As though she had abilities people didn't possess.  Wouldn't it count the superb talent in cooking? Wasn't that part of her magic to attract vulnerable people? I'll keep an eye on her at school Touya suggested I'll see who she *really* is.  

TBC. 


	4. ch 4

Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 4

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Clamp owns CCS.  Takeuchi Naoko owns SM.

****

Juuban High students didn't have to spend money to completely change their school uniform and it unsurprisingly caused a string of staring faces in Tomoeda High.  It was undecided on whether that was a good thing or not.  But that was supposed to happen anyway, wasn't it? Most of the school must have heard about there being students temporarily studying here to keep up with their school work while on their catering training course at Chez Nori.  

They wouldn't be here till their final year of High School.  They would be back at Juuban by the end of this week.  Unless they wanted to extend their training course for some strange reason.  Thankfully most of the Tomoeda High school students welcomed the twenty 'exchange' students to their school and showed them around the school site or helped them find their way whenever they were lost.

As Touya walked around the tennis courts, he easily spotted a few girls from Juuban High walking into a geography classroom and gasping in awe at the excellent display on the walls.  His mind wandered to the rest of the wide spread field where he saw a mixture of Juuban and Tomoeda High students liasing with each other.  This morning Touya had only spoken to three boys from Juuban High.  

Yeah he was being friendly but it was his scheme to find out more about who Makoto really was. It wasn't as though he hated her at first glance (in the same sense as meeting Syaoran for the first time).  His pessimistic senses just wouldn't give his mind a break and forced him to keep his guard up around the girl.  It was rare to see anyone be as good in cooking as Makoto was.  She really was an expert in this area and Touya couldn't help acting cynic about her.  Hell he barely knew anything about her.  Maybe feelings like this were supposed to happen when there was a pretty girl nearby.

Touya slapped his brain from thinking such a thing and thought about something else other than testosterone.  What he did know was that she was taller than most girls in his year.  And if his eyes didn't deceive his imagination, Makoto had muscles not many females would develop during puberty.  How did she get those strong arms, Touya wondered? He leaned his back against the fence as he watched young elementary boys play basketball on the other tennis court.            

Yukito came by to see him, joining his best friend in a broody observation trance in the sports area.  What was it that Makoto had that made her peculiar? Was it her abnormal height, the cooking expertise or…? Touya's brain stopped when his eyes caught sight of a familiar figure hiding behind the bushes.  Long brown hair tied back in a ponytail and long legs stretching out on the grass…that had to be her.  Plus she was eating food – maybe she cooked it herself.  

"Hey, Touya!" Sakura greeted on the other side of the field, pulling her face close to the fence.  Tomoyo was next to her, smiling joyfully.  

"Hi, Sakura," Yukito said cheerfully to break the silence from Touya who was still a little startled by his sister's surprise greeting.  

"Hey, monster.  Sorry gotta run," He said in a distracted volume, his back still facing to his sister as he walked off like a marching soldier.  Sakura and Tomoyo both went 'huh?' while they watched Touya walk off.  It wasn't like him to suddenly take off without insulting his sister much more.  Somehow it didn't completely bother Sakura and she instead diverted her smile to Yukito.

"I wonder where Touya went off to in a hurry," Tomoyo pondered intriguingly. 

Yukito scanned the playground and wasn't able to see his best friend very well among the active peers walking about.  There were so many students in different uniforms it was impossible to find his best friend that simply.  

"I think he was looking for someone," He guessed It couldn't be her, could it?.

****

Touya saw Makoto sitting alone behind a thick green bush, holding a lunchbox on her lap and chewing food in a focused rhythm.  Nobody seemed to have noticed her eating away by herself.  In fact no one was talking to her.  And where the heck were the other Juuban High school students? Didn't they like her? Why shouldn't they? They went to the same school as her.  Touya wasn't friends with everyone in his year but he still tried his best to say hello to anyone who passed him. 

He peeked inside her lunchbox to see what she was eating.  The food looked like jam tarts with a variety of fruity toppings such as strawberry, apricot and raspberry.  He told himself to say hi to Makoto so she would know he was here.  However other instincts told him that he should stay and watch her in secret to see how she truly acted outside the kitchen.  Idiot! He thought You don't know her so wake up and be friendly! Put those suspicions aside.  

His hand brushed against the bottom of the bush, giving out a soft sound as if a gentle gust.  Makoto's head turned around sharply when she heard the rustling.  Now didn't this sound familiar? This was a déjà vu of her first day at Juuban High and her first meeting with Usagi.  Although that was a while back and whomever it was creeping up on her wasn't another Odango Atama.

"If you don't want to get a facial mutilation come on out," Makoto sternly warned.  Whoa that's a new threat I've come across Touya was taken aback by the toughness in her statement.  Since when did girls try to fight? 

"I shouldn't be doing this but when people creep up on me, I get mad easily so…" Reaching round the bush Makoto's hand clutched the person's shirt and dragged it towards her.  Her right fist came into the air to prepare a punch.  However when she saw who it was, the grip loosened on the shirt straightaway.  Her eyes widened in surprise. "Touya! What the hell? Oh Kami, don't do that to me.  You would've been one of the many victims of my deadly attack."       

"What deadly attack?" Touya asked.  Makoto pouted at the bluntness in his question and didn't bother explaining what she meant in easy words.  It seemed like he hadn't heard the usual gossip about her yet.  Well it wouldn't take long till the rumours came over to him.  Then he'd know who she was for real.  Thank goodness no one saw her deliver a real punch or else that would break the ice of her sensible behaviour role.  It was pointless for another school to jeer at her for her reputation as the karate maniac.  She had one school to cope with for this piece of gossip.  

"Haven't the rumours about me been going around yet?" Makoto looked at him, raising her eyebrows as if expecting him to say yes.  Touya's brown eyes remained blank without feeling and he stared back into her emerald orbs.  "Come on, girls have been giving me nasty looks.  Surely that must make you realise something is up with me." 

Yeah there is something up with you Touya agreeably thought but told himself to be nice.  

"Look I'm used to it, ok? If girls or boys don't wanna talk to me because I'm the Karate Maniac." Her fingers gestured quotations.  "It's normal.  You and Yukito could do the same thing.  I don't exactly make friends easily." She moodily chewed her jam tart while she sat back down on the bench behind the bush.  Touya still continued to watch her eat.  This could explain why she had muscles and a tall height.  She was a fighter.  Oh and probably a tomboy too.  Things seemed clearer to Touya now.  She did have a good grip on his shirt.  Not many girls could keep a hold of him in a weak fight.  

Though Makoto was likely to be able to, knowing a tough girl like her.  Touya suddenly could see her point as he saw groups of girls from his drama class whisper to each other when they walked past.  Their eyes were in shock when they saw Touya there too.  In other words their message to him was 'what are you doing with a weird girl like her? She doesn't deserve friends.'        

"You know I fight as well," Touya added, sitting nearer to her on the bench.

"Yeah but have you ever been expelled from school for brutally beating people up?" She read his face and knew his reply. "Obviously not.  That's because boys who fight in school is normal.  Violent girls who punch and kick till the bully bleeds is NOT normal in school."

Touya glanced at her in larger amazement. "You're joking, aren't you? What you're saying can't be real." Makoto shook her head honestly.  Touya couldn't believe he was talking to a cooking expert who had been expelled from her previous school for fighting.  And this was becoming an easy gossip topic.  Maybe not many knew she could cook wonderfully unless they worked in Chez Nori like Touya and Yukito did.  People were only concerned about the karate maniac reputation and nothing else.  Once they heard a girl was expelled from school for fighting then they would keep their defence up and stay far away from her.     

"Touya, there you are.  Sakura wanted to know where you ran off," Yukito said standing in front of Makoto and Touya.  

"Your sister came into Chez Nori yesterday, didn't she?" Makoto asked Touya.  He nodded.  "Ha, she's so sweet.  How old is she?"

"Sakura is a cute yet annoying ten-year old," Touya replied monotonously.

"Oh Touya, don't be too hard on your sister.  She isn't half as bad," Yukito defensively stated and smiled at the obvious joke from his best friend.  Makoto didn't know what it was like to have a younger or older sibling but she was still able to understand the teasing Touya gave as an older brother because she always saw Usagi and Shingo act similarly.  

"Hey I'll introduce you to my brat sister.  Come on." Touya lead Makoto back to the tennis courts where Sakura and Tomoyo remained on the other tennis court, watching other students running around and playing sports games together.  She's looking at her again Touya looked in the corner of his eye at Makoto as they walked.  So far he could see she was a nice girl.  Why couldn't that nice thought stay? It was like an angry bomb going off inside of him when he saw Makoto look strangely towards his sister for a second time.

"Hey, monster this is Kino Makoto.  She's from Juuban High," Touya then whispered into Makoto's ear. "The one I called monster is my sister.  Her name's Sakura." He pointed to the tiny girl who growled huffily at him then to the other girl with long ebony hair. His voice went to its ordinary volume as he introduced Sakura's female friend.  "That's her best friend Daidouji Tomoyo."

"Nice to meet you, Sakura and Tomoyo.  I take you tried my cherry cream cake yesterday.  Was it good?" Makoto grinned, bending down to look at the tiny girls.  

Tomoyo clapped her hands together in delight when she mentioned the cake, "Sakura and I loved it.  Did YOU make the recipe?" Makoto nodded confidently.  "Oh wow! You must be really fantastic at cooking.  You have to teach me or Sakura how to cook next time."

"Maybe next time," Makoto agreed.  The bell rang for the end of morning break and like a swarm of ants returning to their nests, the students from both Tomoeda Elementary and Tomoeda High school started to take their bags and head to their next lesson. 

"Later, Sakura." Touya waved to his sister and Tomoyo then disappeared with Makoto and Yukito.  "What's your next lesson, Makoto?"

"I've got history," She replied.

"So do we.  It looks like you're in the same classroom as we are.  You can follow us," Yukito suggested and gave another gentle smile.  Wordlessly, Makoto decided to follow them to show she said yes.  These boys were the only two friendly people around at the moment.  First they spoke to her in Chez Nori and now they were walking to the same lessons as her in Tomoeda High.  She appreciated their helpful manner on her first day.  One girl studied in Tomoeda High was kind enough to show her where the girls changing room was and that was about it.  Everyone else had heard the rumours from her own Juuban High peers, regarding the Karate Maniac reputation.           

****

"Can you believe it, Sakura? Kino Makoto is the one who made those delicious cakes." Tomoyo exclaimed on the way to class.  Her voice had become as high pitched as her singing.  "Her mother must be a famous chef in Juuban or something to cook that good."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Sakura responded respectively.  Out of the blue she felt a strong poking sensation strike her head as her hand wrapped around the doorknob to the classroom.  Flashes of different scenes clouded her eyes at such speed that she wasn't able to pick out what each one was about.  She managed to capture the last scene that involved bright lightning coming from what seemed to be a female shadow.  Sakura couldn't see her face very well because the lightning in her hands was too bright.  All she could see was the outline of her long ponytail and what appeared to be rose shaped earrings.

What the…? She gasped in her visions Who is this?.  Even though this wasn't a Clow card, Sakura couldn't help sensing a powerful force near her.  It couldn't be Clow Reed again, could it? Eriol was in England with Miss Mizuki.  Nakuru and Spinner were with Eriol too.  So it couldn't be him that Sakura was sensing.  She looked outside to see Makoto, Touya and Yukito walking distantly to their lessons.  Somehow Sakura's eyes kept focusing on Makoto.  What was it that was strange about her? There was some sort of powerful aura around the other girl, which only Sakura could sense and others couldn't. 

TBC. 


	5. ch 5

Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 5

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.

****

The rumours about Makoto being the Karate Maniac in her current school began to buzz around like a swarm of angry bees among the Tomoeda High students.  Everywhere she went from different classrooms and various hallways there were at least three staring faces passing her.  Somehow or another, Makoto felt as though she was back in the past, in her first school – before she came to Juuban High.   

Maybe it was someone from Juuban High who wanted to purposely ruin her adolescence as much as possible to provoke Makoto and get into trouble like she claimed she was. She wasn't sure who was doing this or who hated her guts like hell but it was really ticking her off inside and out.

Makoto actually thought the peers who went to the same school as her would have more sense while they grew up over these years.  She thought they would at least have common sense that bullying someone was something so not worth doing in the first place.  There had to be at least one person who was in this training course that spread the nasty gossip about her past.  Whoever it was that did this was going to be VERY sorry.  Makoto could feel the determination burn in her hands as she listened attentively to the history teacher speak and write on the whiteboard altogether.  

She banged her fists on the table to push away the aggression between her fingers.  Students who sat in front of her slanted their heads backward to see what was the problem.  Even the teacher stopped writing to interestingly look at the new student sitting in the middle row.  Something's bothering her Touya thought suspiciously.  His desk was two spaces back from Makoto and he could see her back hunch uncomfortably from his seat.  

He guessed that she was still a little unsettled here because of the rumours flying around about her and that she needed more time to stay focused.  After all it was her first day.  Maybe the rumours will go away once everyone sees she wasn't that bad as the gossip said she was.  Touya wasn't concerned about how accurately negative the rumours were.  What he wanted to know most importantly was what Makoto wanted with his younger sister.  

She may want to take advantage of Sakura's magical powers and use them for a bad purpose.  Like get revenge on people who upset her.  OK so she may have a temper like Touya did at times but there was no need to have to make use of anger for such a personal matter, was there? Surely Makoto wasn't like that in real life.  Why couldn't any of his peers ask her about her cooking? Didn't they know she was training at Chez Nori along with the other Juuban High School students? Or did they all hate her because of who she was?

Thank God the end of lesson bell rung in the air to cut off the global staring.  Everyone quickly packed their books inside their bags.  Touya and Yukito caught up with Makoto who accidentally huffed out an angry 'What' in exclamation.  The rude reply made the two best friends jump and she instantly apologised to them.  

"Can't stand the gossip," Makoto added, "I wish I knew who did this.  And when I do I'll…" She realised she was speaking loudly and was about to explain her plan of action on the culprit who selfishly spread news on her character.  "I'll give him a lecture.  Yeah one LONG lecture!" Now that sounded less aggressive and more polite, didn't it? It had no connection to punching or kicking till they had a black eye on their cheek or a bleeding nose.  A simple confrontation was what she said she would do.  Though it sounded unlikely for someone like her.  Violence was usually the answer.

"Hey give it time.  I'm sure other people in our year won't bother you as much once they get to know you," Yukito insisted.  Wow he was being nice again.  Why did he always have a gentle smile in bad moments?

"I'll go talk to the other Juuban students.  They could have been the ones who spread the gossip in the first place…I'll behave don't worry," Makoto said when she saw Touya frown and assumed she would beat them up behind the teacher's back.  "I'll see you around, ok?" She left without hearing Touya and Yukito ask where she was going.  They wouldn't know what lesson she had next.  Then again she could take care of herself.  Hey she was the karate maniac. 

****

"Hello?" Sakura called as she closed the front door.  No answer came for five minutes.  It looked like her father wasn't home yet and neither was Touya.  Probably talking to Yukito and that new Makoto girl.  Sakura bit her lip when she saw the tall figure of Makoto in her head.  Even though she had a lovely smile, the cherry blossom couldn't help feeling a little agitated when she thought about her.  And Sakura only met her this morning at break.   

How weird did that feel? Also, how could she explain about the sharp pain in her head during the afternoon? Tomoyo told her to go to the medical room straightaway but Sakura lied repeatedly to her best friend, telling her she was fine when in fact she really wasn't.  It was a relief to find it was the end of school for today.  Sakura could rest for an hour then get ready to make dinner until Touya and Fujitaka come home later on.  

She found Kero-chan sitting by the window, NOT playing games this time.  Now that was a new thing for Sakura to discover.  Kero-chan was either in the kitchen scoffing dessert to playing aggressively on Sakura's console.  

"Hi, Kero-chan," She said softly.  Kero-chan turned its little furry body from the window and smiled when he saw the new Mistress of the Clow Cards standing by her bedside.  Her sweet face appearing in a grim colour as she sat down slowly.  

"What's wrong, Sakura? You look tired," Kero-chan asked.  Sakura pouted and brought her knees up to her chin.  Kero-chan flew next to her left shoulder, patting it comfortingly to hope it would make her feel any better.

"I had a vision this afternoon…and it hurt my head," Sakura said silently.  Kero-chan looked at her blankly and replied, "What vision?" The eleven-year old girl shrugged her shoulders uncertainly and rubbed her temples soothingly.  "I felt such a powerful force nearby.  A-and I'm positive it isn't Clow Reed because…"

"I would have felt it too and so would Yue," Kero-chan finished for her with a good guess.  She nodded agreeably, not sure what else to explain.  The rest of the vision came back to her and she then found her mouth going on in more detail to the guardian beast.  She mentioned about the magical and physical strength from the mysterious figure that was attacking against an invisible opponent.  Sakura was sure it was a female who fought against the unknown enemy.  

A female who more likely possessed thunder magic and immense strength in hand to hand combat.  Meilin was a good fighter but she was nowhere as tall or had magical powers like this fighter had.  Sakura wasn't able to see the colours of the female fighter's clothes though she could see the outline appearance.  A short skirt with a short sleeved shirt.  The outfit was so tight and short, it could show off the girl's figure exquisitely.

"I wonder why this female warrior came into a vision," Sakura said, "Does she know me?"

"There's a possibility," Kero-chan replied, "This afternoon I also felt something strong – just like how you told me."

"Kero-chan what if this is my new enemy? I…I don't know if I would be strong enough to beat it!" The Clow Cards Mistress' hands shook uncontrollably in apprehension and anxiety.  She was never this worried in her entire life.  When trying to turn the Clow cards into Star cards Sakura had been taking so many risks to face off the strange occurrences that were caused by Eriol, the reincarnation of Clow Reed.  All this was merely a test to help Sakura change the Clow cards into Star cards but it sure as hell was dangerous as well as difficult.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm too young to be risking my life Sakura thought sadly Then again…how many times have I risked Tomoyo, Syaoran, Touya and Yukito from being hurt?.  The doorbell rang downstairs and that caused Sakura to jump off her bed to wake her up.  Kero-chan also gasped in surprise when he heard the interruption.  That had to be either Touya or Fujitaka.  Sakura had completely forgot to prepare dinner as well while explaining to Kero about her painful vision at school.  

"Coming!" Sakura answered, putting on an apron before reaching to the door handle. "Sorry, I forgot to prepare dinner.  I was tired and…" Her green eyes grew enormously as she stood by the doorway.   She could see it wasn't her brother or her father.  It was someone she knew.  Someone she thought she would never see in so long.  Sakura couldn't control the burning in her cheeks or the slowly forming tears.  "S-S-Syaoran?"

"Hi, Sakura," Li Syaoran waved his hand in one gesture, smiling sweetly at her.  Sakura hadn't seen his handsome features in so long.  Syaoran still had the shaggy brown hair and the dark eyes she loved staring at.  He even blushed in the same way as before.  He wasn't able to say anything else when he let Sakura into his arms tightly.  She suddenly began to cry and it was hard to pick out what she wanted to say to him.  

Syaoran held her and didn't say anymore.  He saw Kero-chan floating by the door, expecting the guardian beast to flash an insult to him.  Instead Kero didn't bother and just nodded to him.  

"I came to see you, Sakura-chan," Syaoran said and gently let Sakura out of his embrace, held her right hand and escorted her back inside.  After what happened before, Syaoran went back to Hong Kong for he thought Sakura wouldn't need him anymore.  Though today it seemed like she had never wanted him to leave at all.  

He loved her and she loved him.  What more could be explained? Kero-chan could now understand why Sakura wanted him and perhaps Touya to get to know Syaoran a bit more or give him more of a chance.  Kero-chan was a little too sceptic to actually be friendly towards the Chinese boy because of his earlier attempts to be a better Card Captor than Sakura.  Now that Sakura was the Clow Card Mistress there wasn't anything he could do but respect her.  From expanding on that respect Syaoran had grown to care, protect and in fact love Sakura with all his heart.

Sakura was always grateful for Syaoran's aid in capturing the Clow Cards and helping her change them later on.  It was no surprise she didn't want to lose contact with him.  He was more than her friend and partner.  Inside the living room Sakura had wiped her tears away to serve Syaoran some leftover cherry cream cake she bought from Chez Nori, much to Kero-chan's horror at seeing his new dessert being given to the guest.      

"I arrived in Tomoeda an hour ago," Syaoran stated, "I felt something very strange going on around here.  Almost as powerful as Clow Reed's magic."

"So did we," Sakura replied.  

"I…I was worried about you, you know.  I had to persuade mother to let me come back to Japan.  I was surprised she understood my reason." 

The Cherry Blossom blushed slightly, "Really?" He nodded and also blushed deep red.  "Oh Syaoran! Thank you." He let out a gasp as she moved to hug him again affectionately.  She didn't want to talk anymore.  She was just glad to see an old face come back into action like the old days.  His reason for coming back to Tomoeda was obvious.  Not only to see Sakura but also to help her against this new magical force.  

Well it seemed like a good time to use this opportunity to have returned right about now actually.  Because outside came an innocent scream.  Sakura and Syaoran ran to the doorway to see what was going on.  Who or what was outside? A girl about the age as Sakura was on the ground, covering her head from a strange looking demon standing above her vulnerable body.  It sure looked ugly.  Its bright blue skin, zombie white orbs and black claws made the girl scream louder and louder each minute.

What was that thing? Sakura and Syaoran nodded to each other, knowing they had to help this victim straightaway.  Magical or supernatural, it wouldn't matter.  They were the only ones who could help this person fight against the strange being.  

"It's definitely not Clow Reed," Kero-chan observed the monster," Be careful."

"We will," Sakura and Syaoran ran into the middle of the road, a few inches away from where the monster stood against the unknown girl.  This was something neither one of them had ever come across.  Syaoran had his sword ready and Sakura held out her Star staff in preparation.  Their presence caught the monster's eye and it moved away from its victim.  

"What is that?" Sakura asked.

"It has to be a sort of monster," Syaoran guessed, "I've never seen this kind before.  I've read books on myths and legends back in Hong Kong but nothing has this description…" He rolled out of the way just in time as the demon charged at them.  Syaoran raised his sword to prepare a strike but saw Sakura hadn't moved at all.  She was standing there, unsure on how to react.  

"Sakura-chan!!" Syaoran screamed.  Sakura couldn't move as the demon ran towards her instead.  She had to get out of the way!

TBC. 


	6. ch 6

Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 6

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Characters used don't belong to me.

****

The rest of Tuesday did have a last minute improvement for Makoto when she confronted the rest of her peers who applied for the one-week training course in catering.  It was too difficult to ask anyone personally at school for fear she might further the gossip about herself around the Tomoeda High school grounds.  It was easier when they were in the back kitchen of Chez Nori where nobody would pay attention to what was going on because of busy serving to the customers.  

Makoto didn't use any aggressive force on them at all.  It was just a simple chat, asking for honesty from her peers.  True she did pull in one or two threats that involved a punch or a torture in the kitchen and it seemed to intimidate most of the Juuban High school boys quite a bit.  They definitely took her seriously from then on hence they all admitted that they spread the rumours about her past.  Every single one of the boys confessed in straight sentences, which surprised Makoto big time.  

It was hard to believe all these guys didn't like her up till now and waited for an opportunity to ruin her life in future.  Now seemed to be their perfect moment since they were away from Juuban High and in a new environment where nobody knew who they were.  It would have been a good thing if not for the rumors.  People would have treated Makoto equally.  The only two who had been doing that were Touya and Yukito.  Two people who immediately took a liking to her from tasting her cooking and through talking to her normally.

As the doors to Chez Nori locked, Makoto, Touya and Yukito waved to the rest of the colleagues working tonight, including the boys who admitted their dirty tricks to the Karate Maniac.  Makoto had a big smirk on her lips as she walked down the same road as her male friends.  

"She's cheered up already," Touya whispered in Yukito's ear, "Maybe she worked out her problems after all." His voice died down when Makoto started to hum a happy tune and skipped across the road in front.  Touya really did think she was going to beat those boys till they collapsed and wet their trousers fearfully.  He could always see the burning temper form in her eyes when she saw the staring faces back at school today.  She was raring to go at it in a fight.

The temptation was there.  She could have unleashed her power anytime she wanted.  Though somehow she did something non-violent.  She asked the others in a polite fashion rather than used her fists to get answers, which was more likely how she dealt problems normally.  It was funny how Makoto's day turned out to be.  At first she was nervous and had no one to talk to then the rest of the day seemed to turn out okay.  Even at work.  

"Oh gosh, I almost forgot," Makoto said, "we're staying at a hostel and I went straight past it.  My happy mood made me forget my sense of direction."

"Well, guess we'll see you tomorrow then," Yukito stated.

"Hey I'll meet you by the school gate tomorrow.  Later guys!" She waved broadly as she skidded back in the other way to take the second left turning.  Why do I keep having small suspicions of her? Touya thought while walking on with his best friend.  Underneath the friendly face he saw she was a tough girl.  He could picture her punch him if he dared get on her bad side.  There seemed to more than just the physical aggression and great cooking though.  

Touya didn't know what that was unfortunately.  He couldn't stop the curiosity bugging him whenever she wasn't around.  There must have been so much she was hiding from him and everyone else in school.  He realized he was walking by himself due to fierce concentration in thinking and switched his glance to the left, spotting a quick transformation in Yukito.  Wings uncovered his new appearance and standing gently on bare feet was Yue.            

Touya didn't move away or jump like his sister Sakura sometimes did whenever Yue came into his true form.  Yue's clear gray eyes darted ahead and his soft white hair trailed on his back as his head scanned every direction.  Something was wrong.  He could sense it.  And so could Touya.  Luckily Makoto wasn't here to see the strange occurrence with his best friend.  She's definitely faint.

"It's my sister, isn't it?" Touya confirmed solemnly.  Yue was silent and merely nodded, flapping his wings promptly to gain momentum off the ground.  Touya ran with him in the same speed level.  

****

"Sakura-chan!!!!" Syaoran screamed.  Sakura blinked momentarily till her reflexes pumped into last minute action and activated the Fly card.  The magical wings ascended her tiny body to the air to dodge the blue monster's lunging attack towards her.  Syaoran joined the Cherry Blossom's side speedily.

"What happened to you just then? Why didn't you…?" He asked as she held her Star Staff out then silenced softly after seeing her face frown sadly.  She shook her head disappointingly as they stood a few feet from the strange demon, far enough to talk to each other on strategies.  In faint whispers she explained that she hadn't been prepared to confront anything strange since Eriol gave her a final test to defeat his magic.  She actually thought Tomoeda would be safer from now on after the all the Clow cards became Star cards.  

However as Eriol mentioned before leaving to England, he informed Sakura that he was only trying to help and teach her how to be patient with the cards.  That was just helping.  This on the other hand was real life.  It reminded her of the earlier days of sealing the Clow cards to their original forms when they caused plenty of mayhem in her town as they went on the run. 

Whatever this monster was, it certainly wasn't another Clow card.  If it was a rare Clow card, neither Syaoran nor Sakura would even have the slightest idea what it was.  As far as Sakura knew she was the Mistress of the Clow cards and had turned every single one of them into Star cards.

"I'm supposed to be the new Master of the Clow cards.  I should have prepared myself in case something unusual came along," Sakura complained, "I would have been hurt if you didn't call me, Syaoran.  I'm sorry if I didn't react faster before.  I've not touched my cards in a while."

"It's all right, Sakura-chan," Syaoran said encouragingly, "It shows that you need to keep your magic alert at all times no matter what you're doing.  I don't have time to explain further because of this monster here." The blue monster roared impatiently and rubbed its feet on the ground as though a buffalo was seeing red.

"Yeah okay then." She nodded to Syaoran shyly then turned to the monster, "I guess I do need your help still."

He smiled, "You know I'll always help you, Sakura.  Oh whoa here it comes!" They both jumped in opposite directions to miss another lunge from the blue monster.  The female victim ran to the bushes to steer away from the battle against the two unknown kids, her head facing the other way to avert her terrified eyes from seeing the monster.  She couldn't understand how these two were capable of tackling this beast when it was close to eating her up.  They were the same age as her yet showed they were fearless of this creature.  

"Windy! Curl this monster with your strength!" Sakura called.  The Windy card came to life and circled the monster continuously to confuse it.  Its circular bind shrunk to a smaller width to create a bond and restrain movement.  Sakura and Syaoran looked on, hoping that Windy could hold it till it vanished.  However the binding idea didn't succeed and the monster broke free from Windy.  Syaoran cursed and used his Fire magic to push the monster far back.  The fire element seemed to take effect and Sakura used Fiery to back Syaoran up in his attack.            

The burn was settling into the monster, which flinched from the heat of the combined strike between the card captors.  

"It's damaging him!" Sakura spoke excitedly, "We need more fire power! This isn't enough!"

"I'll help you out!" Kero-chan cried and flew from the Kinomoto's residence and transformed into his true form, Cerberus.  Cerberus had a fireball attack ready from his mouth and roared as it came into place and joined with Syaoran and Sakura's attack.  This time the fire strike was three times its strength and burned the monster even more.  It was on one knee and had one arm defending its face from the fire charging towards it.  

"It's still here.  Why?" Sakura exclaimed, watching Fiery continue to throw fireballs that fused with Syaoran and Cerberus' strikes.  Even though the burning strike was powerful the monster refused to let itself be defeated and kept himself in defense.  Its fallen knee suddenly rose back so it was standing normally and the defending arms began to slowly push away the fire attack.  Dammit it was actually starting to recover.  Everyone thought they had him there. 

Though it didn't seem that way.  This monster must have hidden its true strength from the beginning of its first encounter against its enemies just to fool them.  

"The monster is too strong," Cerberus was running out of breath as he delivered more fire from his mouth.  Syaoran started to sweat from using his magic to call upon the fire element and leaned on the back of his sword tiredly.  No! It shouldn't be this way! I have to destroy this thing Sakura thought determinedly.  The blue monster broke away the attack, pushing Fiery back and breaking off the rest of Syaoran and Cerberus' magic. 

"Damn! I really thought we beat him there," Syaoran moaned, preparing his magic in action.  In actual fact he was too exhausted from doing any more attacks after using his magic in one shot.  A faraway voice approached them and was calling Sakura's name.  Everybody looked everywhere to see who it was calling the Cherry Blossom.  Running near to the Kinomoto house, Touya panted as he ran towards them, along with a flying figure everybody recognized so well.  

"Touya! Yue!" Sakura cried.  

"Sakura, are you all right? What's going on?" Touya asked, running closer.  Yue stopped him when he saw the blue monster ready to strike.  This was the strange presence he sensed on the way here.  

"Stay back," He ordered Sakura's older brother.  

"Yue, be careful," Cerberus warned to his friend.  Yue nodded understandably and suggested they both attack the blue monster themselves.  Their wings flapped swiftly to gain stronger ascending range and they surrounded the monster from back to front.  

"What is it?" Yue asked while he flew back and forth to examine the creature.  

"Something that doesn't belong here that's for sure," Cerberus replied suspiciously, charging on all four feet to grab the monster by the neck to push it down to the ground.  Yue threw eight tiny crystals at the creature to strike it in the stomach as soon as the guardian beast pounced off the opponent.  Sure the crystals gave it pain but the monster was immediately back on its feet as if nothing happened at all.  

Yue and Cerberus gasped, as did Syaoran and Sakura.  The monster seemed to have grinned in a disgusting way and rapidly slammed Cerberus into a tree trunk.  Yue flew to the creature to take his turn in attacking though received a punch for himself and dropped to the ground.  Who sent this monster? It's…it's got strength not even I can counter He thought weakly.  The monster was upon Yue's crouched figure.  A tiny gust of wind came from his mouth and shot straight to the guardian.    

"Leave him alone!" Sakura used the Shield card to block off the monster's deadly breath.  She ran to help Yue to his feet while Syaoran went to check on Cerberus.  Touya heard muffles behind him, turned to the bushes and saw the present victim of the monster, crying her eyes out.  He saw she had covered her ears up to avoid hearing the noise, which was a good thing because she wouldn't know what Sakura and Syaoran were really doing and see other weird sightings.  

She'd be more freaked out than he was right now.  Touya was no longer suspicious of Kero-chan or Yue.  He knew everything about what his sister did from becoming the Clow card Mistress by Yue's word to turning the Clow cards into Star cards that made her suffer exhaustion each night.  Everything became clear to him and his younger sister didn't have to hide anything from him or Yukito.  This made him more protective of Sakura than ever before.  

At the moment he knew he couldn't do anything to help.  This girl was too frightened and needed comforting.  This was all magical stuff.  It was best to leave the magical and supernatural to his sister, Yue, Cerberus and that annoying kid, Syaoran.  Since when did he return to Tomoeda? Touya wasn't interested in this right now.  He was more concerned about Sakura.  He did his best to keep the other girl's eyes and ears away from the fight.

Yue fought the weakness in his body as he kept Sakura behind him to expect the monster to strike again.  He wasn't sure whether he was able to attack again and this monster sure had physical strength that outmatched him and Cerberus put together.  If fire won't affect it then what will? Sakura thought.  

"We have to stop that monster from hurting again," Cerberus said.  Syaoran silently agreed, unsure on what else to add.  What the…? His brown eyes caught a fast shadow passing their heads and past the monster.  Even Sakura, Touya, Yue and Cerberus saw the same thing as well.  Everyone was asking, "What or who was that?"

A huge coconut shape struck the blue monster's back and forced him down to his knees.  Yue could see that the strike was made out of electricity.  Who could do this? As the monster crouched down, the attacker came into the sunset atmosphere.  Sakura let out a shocking exhalation when she saw the silhouette become clearer.   It was the girl she saw in her painful vision.  It had to be her.  The tall slim figure.  The short skirt.  The lightning! It was all there.  

This was the female warrior Sakura had seen and told Kero-chan about.  The female warrior had her hands on her hips in an impatient gesture and her eyebrows arced in sharp curls, emitting anger at the monster standing in front of her.  Her golden tiara twinkled its shininess.  The monster growled and pivoted its body to stare at her angrily.  She merely smiled at him then simply dodged an incoming punch to the face.

An attempted bear hug grab wasn't successful and the female warrior somersaulted to the other side of the monster's back.  She realized she had observers thus told them to stay back while she took this disgusting thing on herself.  The monster may have been huge but when it came to agility it was very poor.  It wasn't able to follow the girl's quick jumps and get a hit on her whilst she had no trouble at all giving it jump kicks to the abdomen.  Syaoran saw she almost fought as efficiently as he and Meilin did.  Wow she is so fast.  How does she do that? Sakura wondered.  

Then it became clear that the monster had grown tired from the earlier battling against its current opponents and stamina must have gone away already while dealing with this new foe.    

"Playtime is over for you, Youma!" The warrior stated.  Electricity curled in her hands and a lightning rod popped out of her tiara.  Sakura and the others enlarged their eyes at the brightness the lightning emitted.  "Supreme Thunder!!!!" Huge bolts of electricity left the warrior's arms and channeled into the monster's body, surrounding it in shocking attacks till it exploded smoothly into smithereens.  

The thunder faded among the female's hands when she saw she had achieved a reasonable victory against the unknown Youma.  She slowly diverted her glance to the four now five (along with Touya's additional presence) faces who watched her in action.  

"Are you all okay?" She asked gently.  Her jade eyes specifically directed to Sakura.  "Are you Kinomoto Sakura, a user of magical cards?"  The Cherry Blossom nodded surprisingly at the easy identity guess. Yes.  This is definitely the one I've seen before the warrior thought.  

"Who are YOU?" Syaoran asked.  The female raised her thin eyebrows at the boy with the sword.  Who was this boy? Maybe he was Sakura's girlfriend.  He had the boyish appearance and had boyfriend material.  

The female flicked her ponytail off her shoulders before introducing herself finally, "I am Sailor Jupiter, Senshi of Thunder." Everyone looked at her as though they thought, 'What are you talking about?' Of course she expected that and simply smiled at them. "It's okay.  Not everyone knows who we are.  But you will know who I am from now on.  I have been sent to protect you from evil when it comes to you.  Fear not, young Sakura.  We will meet again." Sailor Jupiter bowed and walked away.  

"How do we call you? Why don't you give us a phone number? Wait, Sailor Jupiter!" Sakura beckoned desperately.  Jupiter had walked away in less than a minute and had vanished from everyone's eyes.  She must be a real warrior to be able to fight powerfully just then.  Everyone around Sakura was thinking the same thing, asking who Sailor Jupiter was and why she came to help.  Was it all right to trust her? What if she was the new evil? 

Cerberus saw Yue in a deep ponder and wondered what was wrong with him.  Yue had this look when he could sense Clow Reed nearby though they had already agreed that Clow Reed wasn't here otherwise they would have sensed him easily.  I have heard of the Sailor Senshi somewhere in the past.  I recognize this Sailor Jupiter but can't be sure she is the same one I remember back then.  It could be a reincarnation of her Yue thought.  When he was in Yukito's form he did sense something strong around him in school and even now he had the same premonition after meeting this Sailor Senshi.  She did have a powerful aura.  

Touya was looking curious as Yue was.  There was something oddly familiar about this Sailor Jupiter.  It wasn't likely that Makoto had a twin sister, did she? Touya thought that was too outrageous to say. 

TBC. 


	7. ch 7

Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 7

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Clamp own CCS.  Naoko owns SM.  What else needs to be said?

AN: I've made a very important alteration in the story.  It involves Sakura's age.  I originally wrote her as ten though I think if this takes place after the series finishes, she would be at least twelve or thirteen years old.  Therefore I've decided to make her 12 years old.

****

"I'm telling you, Rei it is her," Makoto spoke on the phone in a hushed voice. "It's the girl I saw in my dream a few nights ago." She had to go to the bathroom to speak to her friend on the communicator.  It was to not disturb the others sleeping in the hostel.  If she called while in the same bedroom, people would complain about her loudness and tell her to go to sleep.  Makoto went on about how she sensed a Youma presence in the road close to Sakura's house and spotted Sakura with Syaoran in action, their weapons in hand plus the usage of the Clow cards.  

Makoto saw it all in secret.  After leaving Yukito and Touya alone, she had felt a powerful presence nearby and in the right moment, heard a girl screaming for help.  She was still worried as she ran at top speed back in the direction her friends had taken to go home.  Just as she arrived on the scene, she saw Sakura, Syaoran plus two other figures that were barely recognizable.  Those two were in her dream.  It was a shame that she couldn't work out their names yet.  Maybe if she had more time to think then it would come to her.  

"Kinomoto Sakura is her name," Makoto explained, "she wasn't in any weird costumes like I said but she had the same wand I saw in my dream and there were the two guys with wings.  The Youma they were up against was an easy target to beat." Well it may have been easy for her because she had gone against Youmas dozens of times but to people like Sakura, who had never battled these real monsters, it was a hard job.  Plus the fact she was still a young girl.

"Makoto, I sensed a strong energy at about seven o'clock in my shrine," Rei said.  

"That was the approximate time I fought the Youma," Makoto responded excitedly.

"I can't seem to figure out who attacked Sakura.  There was no clear vision in my fire." Rei yawned on the line, "I'll try to see what else I can see or sense tomorrow.  Get some sleep.  At least we know you were right about something."

"Yeah fine.  Talk to you later, Rei." Makoto signed off on her communicator before switching off the bathroom light behind.  It looked like Sakura would need her help for a while.       

****

As Touya rode his bike slowly, he kept a watchful eye on Sakura while she trailed away on her roller-blades alongside him.  She had a small smile on her round-shaped face and to her older brother, it was a way to cover up her shock from yesterday.  The fake façade wasn't pulling off very well.  He knew what she was thinking because it was the same thought as his.  The bright blue sparkles flashed in Touya's eyes when he remembered the power the helper possessed as she fought against the strange monster.  

Never had he seen anyone with agility, physical or magical strength like that before.  How rare was it to meet a female warrior who carried any of these in her blood? Only storybooks had these heroines.  Or was this the result of over-reading fantasy books and idolizing the legendary females such as the goddess of war and wisdom, Athena? If it was down to this, Touya wasn't sure how Sailor Jupiter had the ability to release thunder and electricity into the open.  Was she a magician? It was still a surprise to him after he discovered that Sakura had magical powers like he did and was a Card Captor. 

Did Sailor Jupiter have powers like he and his sister did? Should Touya still have his spiritual powers he would be able to see something different about this Sailor Senshi that not many would be able to pinpoint.  Maybe Yue knew her personally, which could be the reason why he looked at her with such curious eyes.  More curious than Touya's gaze.  Sakura went past the school gate first and saw Makoto standing by the bicycle rack, waving to her and Touya as they came into the school grounds.

Touya skidded his bike into the rack, secured the lock and flipped his rucksack over his shoulder.  He soon noticed how cheerful Makoto seemed this morning.

"Good morning, Touya.  Sakura," She greeted.  

"Hi Makoto-chan," Sakura said and looked down at her hands to see a heavy tub begin placed above her tiny palms.  Surprised, she opened the plastic lid to see its contents.  Different coloured icing covered the pieces of cake sitting neatly in the box.  It made Sakura's hunger grow as wel as her smirk.  How was Makoto able to make cakes that looked really good? Touya peeked over his sister's shoulder, which was easy to do because she was very small, and his eyes zoomed in at the food Makoto had given.  

"Are these…?" Touya's chocolate brown eyes looked up at the expert chef who nodded in reply to his question.  "Makoto really, you shouldn't have.  I can't believe you made these for Sakura..." Makoto passed him another tub with the same delicious desert inside. "…And me!"  

"It's my way of showing how I appreciate friends," She stated then bent down to glance at Sakura, "You can try them at lunchtime with Tomoyo…and your 'boy-friend'."  

"Boy…?" The cherry blossom replied embarrassingly.  Touya didn't understand what Makoto meant – until he saw a familiar face standing behind his younger sister.  Sakura's head straightened and she tilted her head over her right shoulder to see Syaoran.  He wasn't in school uniform though and it must mean that he was here to visit.  Sakura grinned shyly and came over to see him.  "Syaoran-kun, aren't you coming to class?"

"I'm here to visit for the whole of this week," He replied, ignoring the deathly glare Touya pulled off.  "You know, to do…uh…" How was he supposed to cover up when there was a girl he barely knew watching him? He couldn't say to stop the strange occurrences.  The girl would think he was mad.        

"Well guess I'll leave you guys to it." Her back turned swiftly and she was off to her first lesson as the bell rang. "There's nothing better than to start my day cooking.  See ya." 

"Who is that girl?" Syaoran asked when Makoto left.  

"That's not your business," Touya informally said, causing the Chinese boy to growl.  He glanced over to his sister as he walked away, "Later, Kaijuu." 

Sakura wasn't sure how to wipe off the angry scowl on Syaoran's face.  He and Touya rarely ever got along whenever they met through eye contact.  Sakura's older brother despised him in a strange way and it was too difficult for Sakura to get them to be friendly to each other.  The only solution she could think of was to leave them alone to sort their differences out.  That sounded reasonable, didn't it? It was the same with Syaoran and Eriol when Syaoran kept suspecting Eriol's weird behaviour, which Sakura wasn't able to pick out and thought he was a nice boy.

"You're not hurt or anything are you?" Syaoran asked quietly while walking with her to the classroom.  Sakura looked at him confusingly then understood in a matter of seconds what he meant.  She smiled sweetly and shook her head.  So what if her older brother and him couldn't get along.  It was nice to see Syaoran cared for her.  That was good enough for the Clow Cards' mistress.

"We should thank Sailor Jupiter," Sakura muttered, "She helped us beat that monster."

Syaoran nodded, "I saw how she fought.  Every punch and kick she pulled off was precise.  I wonder who she is in real life."

"Hey look everyone, Syaoran's back!" Chiharu came to the classroom door and pointed to the two friends approaching the room.  Everyone else barged to the door to see whether it was true.  The Chinese boy could hear his name echoing around him happily.  Why was everyone happy to see him all of a sudden? 

"Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo cheerfully waved to her best friend, "Hey, Syaoran-kun.  Nice to see you back in Tomoeda."

"Hi, Tomoyo." He sat by his usual desk in a struggle as the swarm of surprised faces followed him.  Questions that began with when or why kept on coming at him.  Everyone thought he had gone back to Hong Kong permanently and wanted to know his reason for returning.  Syaoran had trouble giving out a good enough explanation other than to protect Sakura from whatever was after her.  Luck saved the day as the teacher came in to begin the lesson.  With the teacher facing his back, Sakura looked behind her desk at Syaoran.  

"I'm glad you're back, Syaoran-kun," She whispered happily, holding his hand underneath his desk.  Syaoran gulped shyly as her soft fingers held onto his shaking palm.  His face turned red like always but he managed to wash it away as he looked into Sakura's innocent emerald eyes.  Looking beyond those emerald colours gave him a more ecstatic reaction, permitting him to smile back at her.  

"Me too," He murmured.  

****

Makoto proudly carried her freshly made vegetarian pasta under one arm as she headed off to eat her lunch in the cafeteria.  The Home Economics teacher gave her a grade A for the recipe and showed everyone in class how the result should be.  Most of the other students either put too much pepper in the pasta or overcooked it till its colour faded.  Makoto explained that making pasta was quite easy to do in three minutes and it made everyone's mouths hang open at the confidence and expertise she was giving to them.

She even volunteered to help some peers in stirring the sauce in the correct way.  Of course some of them were still hesitant in accepting her help because of her karate maniac name.  But after seeing how well she could make the recipe look people started go easy on her.  She wasn't someone to be feared or gossiped.  

However there were some who thought she shouldn't even be in school and instead at a special clinic for mental people.  Since when did people get the impression she had to go to a mental hospital for being kicked out of fighting? That was an exaggeration.  She was a perfectly normal girl – except for her super strength that no female could equalise.  That was what made her stick out.

After buying a bottle of orange juice, Makoto went outside to sit by an outdoor bench and ate her lunch quietly.  Alone like yesterday.  Her mind wandered to other important facets that nobody would know about.  Namely about Sakura, who had no idea what else she was going to be facing.  Well neither did Makoto.  It couldn't be a past enemy of the Inner Senshi because as far as they could see the evil had been vanquished.  

Makoto's dream still bothered her each night.  Whenever she closed her eyes, the same thing repeated over and over again.  She would see Sakura calling upon her Clow cards against unusual magic and end up awakening in shock as soon as the Card Captor and her guardians noticed her presence.  What was her dream telling her? Did she have a new purpose in Tomoeda? She was in this town right now so what did she have to do next?

Makoto wandered if the future Queen Serenity had anything to do with this.  Or even Jupiter's future self perhaps.  There are too many possibilities She thought groaningly.  Rei said she would contact Makoto if she spotted anything while meditating in her shrine.  Makoto prayed she would call her soon because her brain wasn't in order to be thinking properly.

"Hey, Kino you shouldn't be in our school," A boy suddenly approached her.  Oh no! Not now! She didn't want any fights at this time.  Dammit so what she was here for a week.  Having fights all week wasn't Makoto's intention on this training course.  Another Tomoeda High School boy joined his friend as they looked over the table at the karate expert.  Makoto ignored their stares and drank her orange juice in one swallow.  She stood up to leave but they blocked her path on both corners.            

"I don't fight in school anymore," Makoto calmly said, trying to leave for the second time.  The boy on her right slapped his thick hand on her shoulder.  This narrowed her eyes in a cautious glare.  

"Oh really well we wanna see what you makes you the karate maniac," The other boy insisted, "Come on, take us on, you bitch." 

"This is wrong!" Makoto warned.  They didn't seem to understand her at all.  She hated being called a bitch.  It was just…insulting.

"Takeru, Joe! Leave her alone!" Touya pushed the two boys back by their shoulders forcefully, almost tripping them on their soles.

"She's a freak.  Freaks don't belong here," Joe moaned.  Touya grabbed his arm in a rough hold and looked him in the eye warningly.  

"She's perfectly normal to me," He disagreeably replied, "Get out of here.  BOTH OF YOU!" As he released Joe from the grip, Takeru spat out a disgusted humph and left with his friend in defeat, helping him adjust his shirt collar tidily.  Touya looked back at Makoto, whose face lowered towards the table's surface.  He then realised her expression had become one of anger rather than sadness.  Did he do something wrong?

"Are you okay?" Touya questioned.  

Makoto brought her head up and instantly said, "I could have taken care of them myself." 

"Yeah, right you were about to hit them hard in the face, weren't you? I could see it in your eyes, Makoto."

"I…I was going to but I changed my mind.  Reality hit me," She admitted.  Truthfully she should be saving her punches for later on when someone tougher than those two boys.  Touya was lucky to be nearby when he saw her in a crisis.  "Thanks, Touya.  I appreciate you helping me."

"I owe you one for making those cakes," He said, his face lightening up more with some signs of joyfulness.  "They were great by the way."

Makoto nodded approvingly, "Glad to hear it." She wondered if her mood swings were affecting her as she looked up into his stern face.  He never smiled broadly like his best friend Yukito did when he greeted her.  Touya was smiling sure but it was very faint to see in the public eye.  She wanted to desperately ask him why he didn't smile as happily like his best friend did though she was unlikely to get a sufficient reply.

Touya glanced at her as though he suspected something.  He was very good at keeping his emotions hidden behind a stern façade.  Even he was able to fool Makoto.  Hopefully he wouldn't find out about her being Sailor Jupiter yet.  

"Uh Touya is there something about me that bothers you in some way?" She blurted out.  

"What? Oh no…of course not.  I was just daydreaming," He immediately said without holding his breath.  Well this boy was a good liar too.  He did know something; Makoto could smell it on him.  "Hey I'm gonna check on my sister." 

"I'll come with you." Makoto whirled round the picnic table to stand next to him.  Touya grimaced at her keenness to follow him to see his younger sibling.  He couldn't help worrying what this girl would do to Sakura.  They took a turning that lead away from the main playground and headed towards Tomoeda Elementary.  Touya usually met Sakura and Tomoyo by the sports field.

"Touya, Makoto, wait up!" Yukito jogged by to join them.  "How was your…?" His voice floated away as his body swayed unevenly in front of Touya and Makoto.  His eyes closed and something bright glistened in front of them.

"Yukito-kun!" Touya concealed Yukito's strange aura surrounding him.  What was going on? Oh he wasn't doing what Touya thought he was doing, was he? Was Yue surfacing in school? This wasn't a good time! There was someone watching! What should I say to make her go? Touya thought worriedly.

What the hell? Makoto's attention diverted from Yukito to the Tomoeda Elementary building as she saw a group of elementary students run out of their classroom in shear panic.  They screamed at the top of their lungs as they ran out in all directions.  Crashing and banging could be heard inside the classrooms.  What was this? Makoto guessed it was something strange all right.  

"I'll go check what's going on over there and see if I can help!" She told Touya.  He didn't respond to her.  Not wasting time she went off on her own to see what the occurrence was this time.  Touya turned his head round to see whether she was gone and lowered his arms to his waist.  Yue's wings glittered in vivid shimmers and spread outward in the air.           

"Thank goodness she didn't see," Touya sighed thankfully.  He glanced back to Yue.  "Why did you come out? You realise we're in school, right? That girl, Makoto she could have seen you."

"That doesn't matter now," Yue said dully, "I felt 'her' close by."

"Is my sister in trouble again?" 

"Yes but that wasn't who I sensed just now," Yue elaborated, "I sensed Sailor Jupiter's magic." Touya gasped shockingly.  "My powers do not fail me.  She may be nearby to help us.  To help Sakura.  Come!" He flew briskly across the field towards the Tomoeda Elementary section.  Touya had to put up a lot of effort to not let anyone see a flying person breezing past them during a crisis.  What was it that went after his sister this time? Sakura, we're coming.  And so is Sailor Jupiter…whoever she is Touya prayed as he ran.

TBC.    

I heard some Japanese wav files of CCS and I heard Touya call his sister Kaijuu, which has to be the Japanese version of 'Hey, squirt.' 


	8. ch 8

Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 8 

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine except the story.

****

Sakura and Tomoyo wouldn't let go of each other's arms as they crouched together worriedly in their classroom. Syaoran stood in front of them defensively to face the unusual occurrence in their school. It was yet another Youma no doubt. Only this one appeared more ferocious than the previous one. Tomoyo kept on asking, "What is that?" And Sakura repeatedly said she didn't have a clue. Syaoran didn't have any ideas either though it may have been connected to the last encounter they had yesterday after school.

Sakura stood on her feet confidently, called upon her Inner Star and joined Syaoran's side. From this view she had a clearer view of what she and her friends were up against. The monster appeared to have a fusion of a lion and the snarling teeth of an untrained dog. Its white fur looked tempting to stroke but one step towards the beast would make people have second thoughts on stroking it. 

The beast turned its eyes from Syaoran to Sakura and jumped off the table to forward its attack. Syaoran called Sakura to get out of the way but instead she decided to stay and use her magic rather than retreat quickly. She released Watery and watched the Clow card wet the monster's fur heavily, pushing it further back from Sakura, Syaoran and Tomoyo. The beast's roars became louder than the screams coming from the other children who had just left the classroom after seeing the strange animal lurking about. 

Most people thought the three leftover children standing in the classroom were absolutely crazy to even think of fighting some unknown specie. Sakura didn't care what anyone thought about what she was doing. At least no one would see her or Syaoran use magic directly. They'd be twice as freaked out with what the cherry blossom could really do. The monster wriggled its fur to dry itself, as any normal dog would do after having a bath. 

"This isn't a tame pet, is it?" Syaoran commented, not even attempting to humour the crisis standing before them. "The owner must be a poor trainer."

"I bet," Sakura said anxiously. "We have to try something else. Watery did have an effect but it didn't make it go away." Syaoran used his Fire magic to strike the monster but it was too fast for his accuracy and dodged each fire strike coming at it. In an instant it then jumped high towards the ceiling, above Syaoran and Sakura. Where was it going to land? The two card captors watched the Youma fly across the room and it's four legs prepared to land on the other side. 

"Tomoyo-chan!" Sakura saw her best friend was in a vulnerable position. Tomoyo gasped when she saw the red eyes of the half-lion half-dog beast staring into her face. Its paws ready to pounce on the victim in front of it. 

"GO AWAY!!" Sakura tried to use the Sleep card on the beast, hoping to quieten it down so it would have a nice nap. Like it was possible. It seemed Sleep had no effect on the monster at all. To him, it was just like unwanted dust caught on its fur and the monster shook his fur again. 

"Guess it isn't his bedtime yet," Syaoran moaned, raised his sword high to try a physical attack. 

"Sakura, use the Sword card and help me out." Sakura wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do. After all this was a live monster she was facing today. It wasn't magical or elemental like her Clow cards. This was a real life animal that came from another world. She had never killed anything as real as this. Flies were different because they got in the way of your face and you squat them with rolled up paper. 

But this was a monster. A real life monster that had the same heartbeat and same senses as we Omnivores had.

"Sakura, I don't care where it comes from or if I have blood on my sword. It's going to hurt Tomoyo-chan and we both don't want that to happen, do we?" Syaoran's voice repeatedly said to her. Sighing in reluctant agreement, Sakura released the Sword card and her wand turned into a metallic blade from top to bottom. With both swords in hand, Syaoran and Sakura aimed their weapons towards the Youma's body and instantaneously sliced down its back.

It roared painfully from the double strike to its back and arched itself as it screamed. Tomoyo pushed herself underneath the table to reach to the open doorway, panicking at the sight of the monster at such a close view. 

"Tomoyo, find Yue!" Syaoran told her. 

"I can't leave you both alone!" Tomoyo interlocked her fingers nervously. 

"Go, we'll be fine!"

Tomoyo was in utter hesitation from leaving her friends behind but she knew it was the only solution. Marching on her feet, she ran speedily out of the classroom, leaving Sakura and Syaoran with the monster. The beast may have been cut on its back but it wouldn't give up so soon and growled at the two attackers. Why wouldn't this monster go home to its master and leave everybody alone? This place was full of innocent people. They didn't do anything wrong, did they?

"At least we made it angry," Syaoran stated. His brown eyes turned to the dazed female on his left; her sword raised high though in a shaky hold. "Sakura-chan, focus! Focus for me. I'm helping you here just like I said I would. We have to keep trying, ok?" Taking one hand off his sword, he placed it lightly on her knuckles. Sakura couldn't go on in this state. She wanted to go home and cry in her bed. She refused to destroy this beast with her sword and feel the blood touch her skin. That wasn't what she did as a Clow Card Mistress. Sure they were magical but killing a creature was what adults called murder. 

Soft, emerald eyes opened up to him and along came an encouraging smile that lifted the sadness of her face. 

"O-O-OK, Syaoran-kun," Sakura said softly. The Chinese boy nodded impressively to her then returned his battle stare to the beast – but in a late time. Because he and Sakura suffered a strong choke hold around their necks and were pushed down onto the floor. They could both feel the sharp claws dig into their skin. Syaoran tried to lift his sword up to cut the monster's hand though it seemed his strength wasn't enough to get close to the flesh. Sakura attempted to think of a card to use as an escape but there wasn't much time. 

The furry monster began to lick its tongue and drool appeared below its lips. The sharpness from the claws was too painful to fight back. Plus the amount of air moving round the body was being cut off instantly. Syaoran and Sakura couldn't figure out how to escape when they were in suffering. Where was Yue? Surely he wasn't somewhere else. Was Tomoyo unable to find him? Kero-chan was at home and Sakura didn't have her PHS in her pocket so she could call him.

"Hey over here, Youma!" A voice yelled, moving the monster's eyes off its dinner. Syaoran and Sakura slowly tilted their heads to the doorway to see who had become a distraction to the beast. Their gazes had a hint of surprise; as well as relief that someone had come to help them. However it wasn't Yue or Cerberus. It was HER again. It was Sailor Jupiter. The girl who came yesterday and destroyed the blue-skinned monster. 

The furry half-lion half-dog beast growled angrily at the intruder. Jupiter instantly recognised the appearance of this Youma as soon as it raised its monstrously ugly head. You again! She groaned. This was the same monster she encountered back in the past after it hurt Shinosaki Ken and the rest of the Inner Senshi. What the hell was it doing back alive? Jupiter remembered finishing it off with a Supreme Thunder. Who brought it back to life? Or even worse, how did it come back?

The monster's appearance hadn't changed since Jupiter last fought it.

"How dare you?" Jupiter said. "First Ken, then Sailor Moon and the other Sailor Senshi and now…" Her fists shook in rage underneath her white gloves. "Now you choose Sakura of all innocent people! Grr…I'll never forgive you. Not for a second time!!" Sakura had never seen anyone this angry before in her eyes. This was only the second moment for her to have met Sailor Jupiter in person. And in trouble. 

Jupiter charged into the monster with a mighty clothesline, pushing it off Sakura and Syaoran so they could breathe again. The beast flew into the broken window, which was where it first came in to scare the pupils, and landed outside. Jupiter wouldn't leave it alone as she followed it through the broken glass. She found the Youma trying to get up on its feet but it was still dizzy from the strong throw the Sailor Senshi gave to it.

Jupiter threw the monster into a tree and watched it struggle again, "I'll finish you off just like before – only with something else!" The Youma looked up to see what she meant and knew it had a reason to be worried. One look in the Thunder Senshi's eyes showed she was not happy to see anyone causing trouble. "Take this…" Electricity flew into her hands as she prepared an attack. "SUPREME THUNDER DRAGON!!!!!!" 

The electrical dragon formed from her hands and zoomed straight through the monster's body then curled around it to shock it even more. The Youma roared among the crackling of lightning surrounding its body. It crouched onto its knees and flopped easily onto the grass, becoming lifeless. Jupiter knew immediately that it had to be dead. Not many Youmas could take the pain of her Supreme Thunder Dragon. Let alone Oak Evolution. 

She headed to the broken windowed classroom to meet with Syaoran and Sakura who were both recovering from the nasty claw therapy the Youma had given them briefly. 

"Are you two okay?" She bent down to observe them closely. Her voice wasn't as aggressive or harsh as she sounded towards the monster that was lying outside to die. 

Sakura's face blanked out in a pale colour as she stared on at the monster lying among the thick grass. Since she wasn't able to respond, Syaoran spoke instead.

"You helped us again. Thank you Sailor Jupiter," He said then suddenly blushed when her jade irises zoomed into his square face. Preventing another shyness blooming in, he went on to say, "Sakura-chan is um…"

"She's not encountered something like this before, I know," Jupiter understood in less than a minute about why the cherry blossom was in a strange trance. "Not to sound harsh but she may have to get used to it from now on. I have a bad feeling more Youmas will be after her." 

"What do you mean? Do you know who's sending these monsters here?" Syaoran asked curiously. That was a good question yet hard to answer. Jupiter remembered how Ail and Ann caused serious trouble when they wanted to gather energy for their Doom Tree and ended up hurting lots of young people who were the same age as her. 

This Youma she had defeated for the second time was one of their creations. It couldn't be Ail and Ann again, could it? She remembered Usagi telling her that they knew their mistake and went to another place happily where they wouldn't be killing people for their energy. 

Jupiter doubted it was those two aliens again. They were probably far, far away in another galaxy helping their tree to grow and blossom magically. 

"I don't know who sent these monsters to Tomoeda but I'll find out what I can I promise," She assured. 

"SAILOR JUPITER, LOOK OUT!!!!" Sakura suddenly screamed, pointing outside. Jupiter and Syaoran's eardrums nearly burst when she said that. The Youma was back on its feet by bad luck. The Thunder Senshi thought she finished it off so it would die automatically. Dammit she should have finished him off more with another strike to be positively sure it was dead. The claws poked out largely and aimed straight towards the three warriors directly. 

Jupiter faced her back to the Youma and covered Syaoran and Sakura between her arms, her eyes closed shut and waiting for the claws to scratch her hard on either her neck or down her spine. But another ally came to the rescue. Jupiter could tell there was someone else from the sound of the familiar roaring of the Youma and turned her head round to see who it was. Yue had thrown millions of crystals at the monster, poking it in all parts of its body painfully. Eventually it vanished to its death for real this time. 

Jupiter, Syaoran and Sakura saw Yue, Touya and Tomoyo standing by the bushes. 

"Thanks," Jupiter said bluntly. Yue nodded silently then glanced to the cherry blossom, who was still a little worried and scared about what she had gone through today.

"Is she all right?" Touya's face looked down at his younger sister's.

"She's still a little dazed from the Youma encounter," Jupiter explained I should have taken it down quicker. Sakura apologised quietly then mentioned she was going to splash water on her face in the girls' toilets. Tomoyo and Syaoran followed her.

"I'll go just to be sure she's okay," The Chinese boy added in confirmation before running after the two friends.

"What is troubling YOU, Sailor Jupiter?" Yue questioned as he saw her gaze distantly across the field like Sakura appeared. Instead she knew what she was thinking about. She was angry because she didn't see the Youma vanish in front of her eyes to show it had been completely vanquished by her power. Heavy concern about Sakura and Syaoran was what took her mind over – as well as anger to see a familiar face she had defeated back in the early days. 

"I didn't take this Youma seriously as I should have," Jupiter accounted. "I should have seen it die in front of my eyes before checking on Sakura. Dammit I'm clumsy!" She banged her fists against each other.

"You were never clumsy from what I remembered," Yue said in opposition. The Thunder Senshi's eyebrows raised curiously from what he said. What did he mean? Had they already met? If they did she didn't recall memories of them being friends. But maybe that was it. Because she and the others lost their memories upon arriving on Earth, the events they remembered in the Silver Millennium remained vague and unclear. 

"Do you know me?" Jupiter asked, stepping closer to him and looking into his clear grey eyes. She could see how his eyes blended with his long, white hair perfectly. It was quite beautiful as a matter of fact Jupiter noticed. "I…I can't seem to remember you anywhere in the Silver Millennium. You have to understand that my friends and I lost our memories as soon as we came here. It's a slow process to regain every single memory."

"I remember Princess Serenity," Yue went on, not noticing Jupiter gasp at the mention of recognizable names. "You must remember Clow Reed. Cerberus and I were his creations. He was like our father. He came to Serenity's castle to entertain her every year when it was her birthday."

Why does that name ring a bell? Jupiter closed her eyes thoughtfully to try to tap into her brain somehow. That name sounded familiar all right. Clow Reed…who was he? Maybe she could ask her friends. Then again it would take her a while to get back home and call someone up on her communicator. Tiny glimpses of the Silver Millennium came into her visions. There she was with the other Inner Senshi and Queen Serenity. 

Everyone was eating happily eating by a table. Prince Endymion called someone's name to enter the dining room. A tall man with glasses and a plaited ponytail came to the far end of the long table where Endymion sat. Two other figures came into the spotlight. One definitely had to be this sweet-faced angel from looking at the long hair and huge wings. The other must be the one known as Cerberus. The guardian beast Jupiter saw yesterday. 

So it was totally true then. Yue did know who she and the Inner Senshi were. Some bits started to come back. Yue and Cerberus applauded their master as he created fireworks in the dining room, impressing the Inner Senshi and making them smile for hours. She and the others did see Clow Reed and his guardians yet didn't know their names. What were their names anyway?

"Wow we did know each other. This is unbelievable!" Jupiter shrieked then calmed down quickly in front of the staring faces. "But that doesn't explain how you think I *wasn't* clumsy in the past. Why don't you fill me in on what you know about me or the other Senshi?"

"Clow Reed heard many stories about you from Princess Serenity. She said you were the bravest among the Inner Senshi and named you Senshi of Protection." Jupiter couldn't wash off the proud blush forming on her cheeks when he said this. Serenity did care for her deeply. In fact she showed equality towards the Inners and Outer Senshi. But this name she gave to Jupiter made the Thunder Senshi feel extra special. "This is how I was lead to believe you weren't what you stated as clumsy…I've seen you in battle enough times, you've proven yourself to be a brave warrior. Even now."

"T-thanks um…oh god is your name Yue?" She held back an excited screech when she got his name correct, much to her own surprise. "It looks like everything is coming back faster than before," Jupiter realised, becoming happier than she was a minute ago. "Oh man this is getting weirder." Her amazement was cut off when Yue took her hand and bowed to her on one knee. She could feel his front strands tickling her upper arm as his head bent downward. "What are you doing?" 

"It is an honour to meet you after all these years, Lady Jupiter," Yue stated wisely. Lady Jupiter? That's a first The Senshi of Thunder thought embarrassingly, guessing he would kiss her hand as an act of royalty. 

"Sorry to interrupt but I think I see some teachers coming by," Touya butted in, hearing startled teachers complaining about the broken window in the classroom. Jupiter and Yue knew what that meant of course. They had to exit from the school premises to avoid staring eyes from anyone else. Yue rose from his bow to release his fingers off Jupiter's hand. Before retreating, the Thunder Senshi waved goodbye to the two young men she had considered as Bishounen and rapidly ran off further down the field till her figure vanished into a dot. 

Yue instantly returned into Yukito – just in time as the teachers came to shockingly visualize the shattered glass all over the grass. Touya was unfortunate to not get the chance to ask Yue some questions of his own before he turned back into Yukito. There was something he wanted to know from him. 

Did Yue or even Cerberus know Sailor Jupiter's identity? True Touya had a few ideas though it wouldn't be nice to accuse someone of something that sounded pointless to them. Jupiter wasn't an ordinary girl most certainly and Touya wanted to know more about her. Then again, neither was the other girl he occasionally encountered each morning. Being suspicious and curious was becoming a new friend to Touya now. 

TBC. 


	9. ch 9

Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 9

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.

****

Makoto slammed the door to her bedroom in one easy gesture, not caring if the rest of the Juuban High students thought she was crazy in her head for showing she was deeply enraged with something.  She was glad she got to have a single bedroom for herself.  Like she cared what the other girls thought of her.  

In fact it was good to have a single bedroom, as no one was able to argue with their roommate for making awful messes on the floor with their clothes or leftover dinner.  Makoto burst out a long exhalation on her bed as her head lay on the pillow supporting the thick cranium she had grown over the years.  Flashbacks of today flooded her closed eyelids.  

****

In a whole day she had to deal with a total of three Youmas at school today.  It all happened again as soon as the day ended for school, which was two hours earlier than scheduled time.  This was because of the unusual Youma that jumped straight into Sakura's classroom and started attacking everyone.  

Jupiter, Syaoran and Sakura had weakened the half-lion half-dog monster, which was then defeated with a final blow by Yue.  But even though that was over, it didn't stop the teachers from being more worried about their students and their jobs.  There was only one way to keep the precautions going and that was to send everyone home immediately.  Coincidentally Makoto was in the neighborhood while she was on her way back to the hostel and suddenly saw a bright yellow jelly monster attacking Sakura, Syaoran and Yue.  Her day couldn't have gotten any better.  

It was strange how she hadn't seen Yukito for the rest of the day.  Where could he have gone? Maybe he was back home safe and sound already.  The last time she saw him was when he caught up with her and Touya outside.  Then something weird happened to him that Makoto wasn't able to work out because of the previous Youma's arrival in Tomoeda Elementary and that drifted her attention to something else.  Anyway she didn't have to worry so much about him.  

Touya was probably keeping him company at his house.  Makoto had transformed quickly and was back in action to tackle the female jelly Youma that had begun to crush Yue by his ribs.  It was too difficult to get close to her as she was capable of grabbing the victim flawlessly by its own body, turning itself into tentacles.

Jupiter had taken a quick plan by grabbing the Youma into a tight neck hold from behind, forcing the enemy to release Yue.  She thought choking it to death would work but the hold didn't last as long and the Youma had thrown the Sailor Senshi off.  What an annoying freak this jelly demon was.  It was so slimy it made everyone around her sick and disgusted.  The Youma had continued to persist in its plan, which was (predictably) to go after Sakura.  

Syaoran and Sakura didn't get a chance to use their magic as the jelly Youma seized them both with her body tentacles.  Whatever it was planning to do, it didn't work out as soon as Jupiter rose to her feet and smashed her fist into the slimy head of the jelly figure.  Adding to that, she used Supreme Thunder to shock its entire body so it would let Syaoran and Sakura go.  Jupiter hadn't realized how much angrier she had become from the rest of the day and she had gotten more ticked off as she faced this jelly Youma on the ground.

She lifted the Youma's entire body and threw it into the tree trunk violently.  Everyone else around her expected the Youma to splatter then reform and surrender.  However that was only half correct.  Instead of reforming, the Youma had instantly exploded into small particles after experiencing the mighty impact from the Senshi of Thunder's powerful throw into the tree trunk.

She had to admit she didn't predict such strength coming out like that through one wrestling-style throw.  Perhaps her rage had given it to her.  Because she was angry that yet another Youma had been summoned to go after an innocent girl like Sakura.  Sakura used Snow to freeze the Youma from top to bottom then used Fiery to burn it down.  Of course the cherry blossom didn't want to do this because she considered this jelly Youma to still be real like humans.  

But Jupiter's warning about getting used to these occurrences would have to taken seriously now or else she would never be able to face more Youmas (like what she did to the jelly creature) or other disturbances in Tomoeda.  Jupiter's day hadn't finished so easily when a moving tree came to life out of the open.  First there were weird looking monsters and now there were supernatural habitats forming.  

What the hell was going on? With the jelly Youma gone Jupiter, Yue, Syaoran and Sakura had to now deal with a live oak tree that had grown twice as tall as its normal size for its age.   Jupiter wasn't sure how to stop this living being.  It wasn't human or a Youma.  It was just more than out of this world.  

Sharp leaves shot into the air like bullets from guns and flew all over the place around Sakura and her friends.  Jupiter thought she could match the tree's attacks by striking with her Oak Evolution.  Somehow the lightning bolts shooting from her hands didn't quite equalize the tree's attack strength and these were real leaves she was against here.  Syaoran tried to cut through the branches though each broken part ended up being mended magically.

Wood didn't have any effect whatsoever.  It was weaker than the tree and couldn't pull it down.  I'll have to be tough on this tree Jupiter thought, deciding to grab the tree's feet was one of the ideal suggestions to stop it from moving as much.  The tree wouldn't lose its direction on its target and that enhanced its agility to miss the Thunder Senshi's numerous grab attempts.  Jupiter cursed each time she was unsuccessful.  

Ten tries later, her final grab attempt did connect and she grabbed the tree till it collapsed with a noisy thud on the ground.  Yue flew in to have his turn to stop the moving tree, throwing crystals to strike it as if sticking pins to keep a piece of paper stuck down on the table.  Jupiter told Sakura and Syaoran to combine their fire magic and burn the tree.  Miraculously the attack didn't burn the tree till it was ashes.  Instead it spontaneously returned to its originally still form.  The legs vanished and the sharp leaves softened round the edges.

"That wasn't a Youma," Jupiter said, staring straight at the tree in its normal state.  She wiped the sweat leaking on her hands using the pleats of her fuku.   "But it still gave me a hard time."  

"I'd say someone used magic to bring the tree to life," Syaoran added, "And I know it's not Clow Reed. I can't sense him anywhere."

"None of us can," Yue stated generally then turned to Sakura. "Go find Touya.  Tell him to take you home.  You've had enough trouble today. I'll follow you later." The Cherry Blossom agreed and skipped away down the street.  Syaoran flinched as Yue's face turned to him.  "She'll want your company before you go home." 

The Chinese boy accepted this simple task and ran as fast as he could to catch up with Sakura.  Observing her face in his direction, he could see what Yue meant by having enough trouble all day.  Her usually innocent green eyes had narrowed into immense sleepiness.  It reminded him of when her magic wasn't strong enough to turn all the Clow cards into Star cards a few months ago and she couldn't control her immediate exhaustion after this happened each time.  He beckoned her and she stopped walking to give him a gentle smile to show she was okay.  

Yue and Sailor Jupiter watched from a far distance at the two card captors walking further away from the latest fight scene. 

"Sakura isn't used to this," Yue said, sounding slightly sad in some places of his voice. "She's young.  I can't blame her for her anxiety.

"You and Syaoran really care for her, don't you?" Jupiter noticed. "And Touya cares for her too." 

Yue glimpsed at her in shock when she said the name of the cherry blossom's sibling, "How do you know her brother's name? He never introduced himself to you properly." 

She gulped accidentally at his point.  Damn he was right.  Touya and Jupiter had never exactly talked to each other in person yet - like she was doing with Yue.  So it was a huge surprise to see her mentioning Touya's name out of the blue.  Makoto knew his name yes but Jupiter didn't and Sakura hadn't told her who her brother was or who Syaoran was because they hadn't had a proper chat before.  Nice one, Mako Jupiter thought, angry at her carelessness.  To the kids, Yue, Touya and Cerberus, the Thunder Senshi was a mysterious warrior coming to protect the new mistress of the Clow cards and not in fact a normal schoolgirl.

"Oh uh…I heard it somewhere you know.  Um…"Jupiter wasn't good at making things up and decided to alter the conversation.  "Hey what does it matter? I'm here to help Sakura and that's it. Man I have to go now, ok? See you next time trouble comes." She ran off in a matter of seconds before Yue could protest further.  

****

Makoto knew she had made a mistake today.  She almost let her tongue roll off into an unknown direction while she spoke with Yue.  How could she have been clumsy? How could she forget she wasn't herself at that time? She was Sailor Jupiter NOT Kino Makoto.  Her day was really full of hard work.  That tree was a toughie to defeat and if Yue wasn't there, she would have been in trouble and so would Sakura.  Dammit why did she have to be here? 

All this was from a dream.  How unbelievable.  The only thing she did know was that someone wanted Sailor Jupiter to be around and to hurt Sakura in many ways.  Whoever it was, he or she was going to get a pummeling the Thunder Senshi had seldom pulled off in her life as a fighter.  Seeing Sakura in sadness and shock made Makoto want to say how sorry she was for anything.  It was like an emotion kicked in her veins.  She felt…close to her even though the Sailor Senshi hadn't had a proper talk with her yet.

Makoto picked up her communicator and contacted Ami this time, giving her the latest information on what was going on in Tomoeda.  She could tell the clever blue haired girl was in the middle of homework and her face had a description of concentration on the screen.  When Ami saw it was Makoto, she knew this was an appropriate interruption and not a time to talk sociably.  Makoto got into her explanations as clearly possible, giving out details on how she felt towards Sakura honestly.  

Ami pinpointed. "You treat Sakura as though you know her as someone very close.  Like a relative." Those were Makoto's own words.  And it was true, wasn't it? From protecting Sakura in the last two days and getting to know her and her friends Makoto sensed an instant click between them.  Not only with Sakura but also with her brother and friends.  Even Yue.  That was remarkable.  He told her she wasn't clumsy from remembering about her past in the Silver Millennium.               

Why did he tell her that? Maybe he thought Jupiter was his preferred Sailor Senshi between the rest of the Inner Senshi.  Don't be silly.  He doesn't know who you are YET.  He doesn't know you're Kino Makoto She thought.  

"Ami-chan, you're right.  I can't help sympathizing the girl or her brothers and guardians," Makoto said.  "There's nothing wrong with that, is there?" 

"That is something you can find out yourself," Ami smiled.  "Don't think too much now.  Rest till the next Youma or disturbance comes." 

Makoto nodded and signed off on her communicator.  How could she not stop thinking about Sakura or her brother and Yue? It was too addictive.  Too intriguing.  Was this why she was chosen by the Gods or whoever it was to protect the cherry blossom? To deepen her intriguing thoughts.  

The others would probably be thinking the same thing as her, wondering who the hell she was underneath the green fuku and electricity.  It was likely that Yue and Touya were already onto her, especially from the tiny mistake she made in the Yue conversation.  But with Touya, seeing his daily stern face was a definite sign he was suspicious of her.  Makoto had to be cool with him.          

****

Who are you? Why are you mysterious? Yue knew she was the Sailor Senshi of Protection.  That was what Princess Serenity had stated to his master Clow Reed but he couldn't understand why she had to take off so suddenly while they were talking.  Was she hiding something from him? Yue sensed someone behind his back, switched his head round and blew away the bushes to see a clearer angle.  Touya came out to greet him from outside his house.

"Touya, what is it?" Yue commented, his defense lowered at the recognizable face approaching him.  Touya crossed his arms over his chest and looked on at the other side of the road, which happened to be the direction that Jupiter had taken when she exited.  Touya's eyebrows arced downwards sharply and Yue had the feeling he knew what he was thinking about.

"You're thinking about her, aren't you?" He asked.  "Sailor Jupiter clouds your mind." 

"She reminds me of someone at school," Touya said.  "The way she acts, her character…it reminds of…no it can't be her.  Surely it couldn't. What am I thinking? Only one girl has this attitude " 

Yue filled his gaps in, "I wouldn't be surprised if Sailor Jupiter was someone who attended the same school as you.  I was certain her presence was nearby before she came to rescue Sakura." Touya didn't realize this would result like this.  He thought Yue would have the same idea as him on discovering the true identity of Sailor Jupiter.  Why couldn't either one of them spit out the girl's name? Would it be wrong to suspect someone already?

"I'm gonna find out who she is," Touya decided with determination, "I'll see you in school tomorrow."                  

TBC. 


	10. ch 10

Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 10

Disclaimer: Clamp own CCS.  Takeuchi Naoko created SM.

****

Makoto wasn't able to focus on cleaning the tables in Chez Nori as closing time became nearer and nearer on the clock.  Fighting the two Youmas yesterday after school was seriously hard work and it affected her performance in the back kitchen all afternoon today.  School lessons went smoothly as any normal school day would and nobody was in the mood to jeer at her for being Karate Maniac or to socialize with her.

Various thoughts travelled in and out of her imagination while she went on working conscientiously, cleaning off the rubbish left behind by the customers who didn't understand what the word rubbish bin meant in their vocabulary.  Makoto hadn't spoken to Touya or Yukito in person around the school site.  Touya wouldn't stop giving her a very strange look every time she walked past him to head to a different lesson to him.  Usually when she asked him what was his problem he would say nothing.  Like anyone would, wouldn't they?

"Makoto, it's my turn to clean the tables now," Yukito said, breezing by with the familiar smile of his.  He took the wet flannel from Makoto's working hands and followed the same chore as her.  The super chef still had her apron on and her hands remained in its open palm position.  It seemed that she wanted to say she wasn't done yet.  But Yukito didn't appear to have heard her and went on working.  She let him continue her work and went back to the kitchen.  

She never met any boys who were as polite as Yukito.  Boys she knew were too chauvinistic towards her about her aggression and accused her of being unable to male chores such as lifting heavy objects.  But when they got on her nerves, she would then show she was perfectly capable of lifting large objects like themselves.  That was the normal reaction these kind of boys emitted whenever Makoto did this to them.  It was fun sometimes.  

Yukito was one of the few boys she befriended and who was friendly to her *all* the time.  She watched him concentrate on his chore strictly.  His eyes hiding behind the round glasses, picking out each stain that stuck out on the table.  Makoto wasn't sure how Yukito was able to cheer her up or make the rest of her day lighter than it would be at school.  He even made her smile without realising and Makoto couldn't exactly work out his little strategy to do that.  

When he said hi to her she would sense an unusual feeling from him.  Something very familiar.  She didn't know why she kept thinking it was Yue she felt.  But then again things had become freakier during her stay in Tomoeda.  She only spoke to Yue twice for five minutes and instantly felt a warm aura around him as he spoke to her.  Yukito had that same sentimental aura as the Clow Mistress' guardian when he was around Makoto each time.  That was weird.  Well anything could be considered as strange these days. She was a Sailor Senshi and was used to it daily.  

And that reminded her of the previous day.  Before the half-lion half-dog Youma got her attention, Makoto remembered getting a tiny glimpse of a disturbing occurrence around Yukito.  If she remembered exactly, something bright surrounded him and Touya was there to shield whatever it was.  What was it? If only that Youma didn't come then she'd find out what was happening to Yukito.  She wasn't sure whether it was worth asking him in person about this.  Maybe he didn't like people invading his privacy.  

Five PM showed on the wall clock behind her as she changed into her normal school uniform.  A loud yawn escaped her lips and her hands covered her mouth to not let anyone see she was tired.  People might think she was bored of this training course she was taking part in when in fact she enjoyed every minute of it.  Not only was it to earn a little money but also it was also to be able to fight off anything disturbing around Tomoeda.  After all she was one of the only Sailor Senshi present here and she was tough enough to take on anything causing danger to the public.          

"Hey, are you going home yet?"

Makoto swirled her oval head round to see Touya ready to leave Chez Nori in his school uniform and rucksack.  There he was with that stern façade he constantly flaunted extremely well towards her.  

"Uh what about Yukito, aren't you going to wait for him?" She asked, giving a blatant excuse to gaze away from his cold eyes.  

"He's got the keys, don't worry," Touya said, nudging to the door.  Makoto had a hunch he wanted Yukito to be by himself.  Or maybe Yukito purposely volunteered so that Touya could talk to her in private about something personal.  This didn't sound like it was going in a good direction.  Makoto wiped off the guilty face as she looked back inside Chez Nori to see Yukito happily cleaning the tables as if nothing was wrong.

The two Chez Nori co-workers both walked in shear silence and didn't bother exchanging friendly glances every minute.  Makoto wasn't sure whether it would be worth smiling at him.  Yeah she admitted Touya was cute, athletically tall and his eyes could be stared at for hours – when not in a glare that is- though drooling over a cute Bishounen wouldn't be suitable at this moment.  

"I think it's time you and I had a real talk, Makoto," He told her, his eyes staring erect as they both walked simultaneously.  

"Yeah I can tell," She replied lowly.  Whatever was on his mind had to come out now!  Makoto wasn't good with patience around people who kept her in the dark.  It couldn't be about what her being someone in a short green skirt with electricity, could it? 

"Who are you?" This question made Touya stopped walking and he forced her to look up at him, turning her shoulders round.  Makoto didn't have a chance to calm down a startled reaction as her green eyes locked into the dark pools targeting at her face.  The way he asked her the question was straight to the point and Touya didn't even hesitate in regret.

"What do you mean?" She asked coolly.  That was an obvious lie to begin the interview.  She had a feeling he knew what she meant it and kept the conclusion concealed.

"Stop pretending you're stupid.  Answer the question!" Touya's voice picked up a volume and he landed his hand firmly on Makoto's shoulder.  A few passers-by turned their heads round to see the tall schoolboy become impatient with his female companion.  They assumed the girl and boy must have been having relationship problems, which could explain why the boyfriend was looking at his lover so intensely and angrily.  Maybe she cheated on him or something, people thought.  The noisy faces immediately stormed off when Touya caught their eyes.  Yes it was best to go away and mind your business.

Touya then said, "You look at my sister as though she's an alien." 

"She's not an alien, Touya.  Her name is Sakura," Makoto corrected.  He disregarded the weak humour in her voice and slapped his forehead.  If he had his powers still he would notice other things about this girl faster than his present pace.  He didn't regret giving his powers to Yue to save his life.  He only did for his sister's sake.  But this was one time where he wished he had his secret abilities inside of him – to find out who this girl was.  Touya's hand pressed harder on her shoulder.  

"What the hell is your problem, Touya?" Makoto whined painfully.  

"Who are you? What do you know about my sister?" Touya continued to question her.  How was she able to answer him while she was in pain? It wasn't easy to be honest while undergoing torture.  She could have flawlessly thrown him to the ground using a quick judo technique but this was a friend and they were both in a very public place.  She didn't want the whole of Tomoeda finding out this girl was as vicious as a young feline. 

How else was she able to fight him without using physical force? Sweet-talking was just a waste of her time.  He wouldn't care.  He wanted answers. 

"I'm sorry, Touya but it's hard to explain.  There are things that are known as personal," Makoto stated apologetically.  However the boy wouldn't accept her excuse and persisted in the truth.

"You're so secretive around Yukito and me.  You only ever talk if it's about cooking or school.  Nothing else.  Also I can't understand why you look at my sister funnily.  One day you're being nice to her and Tomoyo then you're looking at her as if she's dangerous," Touya said, sighing confusingly.  His impatience and anger had dramatically dropped from his cooling down a few minutes ago.  

Makoto wasn't sure if this boy was to be trusted.  What would he understand about her Sailor Senshi duty? She and the others had kept their identities a secret for long periods of time and it wouldn't sound right to suddenly tell someone who she was.  The world didn't have to know who the Inner Senshi was.  There wasn't a point, was there? Unless there was a real excuse to spill everything about her Senshi duty then Makoto would explain all.  However this present moment DID seem to be a serious matter.  

Kinomoto Sakura was the Clow Mistress and someone was sending monsters to attack her and had caused unnatural phenomenon in Tomoeda.  Makoto happened to be in the right place to be able to help her and all this had come from one dream she had back in Juuban.  One dream that brought her here.  She thought she had to keep her identity as Sailor Jupiter a secret but one repeated flash of Sakura's depressed face made her think twice.  Maybe she ought to tell the girl who she was.  

Including Touya, Syaoran, Cerberus and Yue to her list as well.  Sakura was still a young girl who wasn't a full teenager yet.  It wasn't a surprise that she was a little fearful of being against such scary Youmas or having to fight off paranormal happenings.  Yue was right about this point and when Makoto heard him speak like this she could feel him worrying about the young Clow Card Mistress deep inside.  Like she was right now.  

She couldn't control the sympathising feeling burn her insides.  She knew as Sailor Jupiter she was here to help Yue and Cerberus keep Sakura safe from this opponent but she wasn't sure why she felt rather generous towards the Cherry Blossom.  Did she remind her of Usagi? The girl had innocence like the princess but her personality wasn't completely identical to her and she was younger too.  As a Sailor Senshi Makoto had always protected Usagi day and night from Youmas and it seemed to be the same job for her to protect Sakura.  Though this time as she told Ami on her communicator, she felt closer to this girl than to the Moon Princess.

Speaking of secrecy, Makoto was certain Touya was being the same as her, acting reserved about himself or Yukito.  And that did ring a bell from yesterday in school.  He did cover Yukito up when something strange happened to him.  Why was he being so suspicious and rude to her when he was also being secretive himself? Makoto wasn't rude to him about his secrecy now, was he?

"Touya, you have to tell me something in return if I tell you why I'm here," She said.  Now this shocked him.  Ha he just got a fierce counter attack.  "Tell me what happened to Yukito yesterday.  Why did you cover him up?"

"No, you answer my question before I answer yours," Touya argued. "Ladies first, right?"

Smart guy She grimaced at the well-pointed statement, heaved in a deep breath and gave in to Touya's sharp prying, pulling her loose strands of hair behind her ears.  Touya's eyes suddenly grew bigger when he saw the earrings she wore.  This was more than a lucky coincidence.  Did Sailor Jupiter have a twin sister who looked the exact same as her? It was impossible to get the same pair of rose shaped earrings as hers.  If that was so, that only meant one thing.  

"Do you like my earrings?" Makoto queried, "HEY!" Touya's hand touched her left ear and his face had zoomed in to look at the shiny red rose earring.  He didn't need glasses to mistake this jewellery.  It definitely looked like the same earrings that Sailor Jupiter wore.  He recognised them pretty well.  Makoto was a bit embarrassed by his sudden touch of his hand on the side of her neck.  

"Tell me your true identity," Touya commanded.

Makoto whipped his hand off her neck roughly, "From the way you've been looking at me these past days I doubt I need to tell you myself." It may seem so obvious that he was going to get his guess right.  She knew she had already made one mistake in saying how Touya cared like Yue and Syaoran did when she was in her Sailor Senshi fuku.  It was probably ideal to stop Touya becoming more suspicious and angrier in future if the truth just came out itself.  

"You're…" His full sentence paused as he turned to his right and saw another figure approaching them.  Yukito sprinted over to them, panting heavily as his breathing slowed down in his crouching position.  Makoto looked at her watch then saw time had passed quickly during her walking conversation with Touya.      

"Hey, guys," Yukito cheerily said and stood back up again.  

"I didn't realise you would finish cleaning so quickly," Touya noticed Why now?.  He thought his best friend would take longer than that – unless his other half did some of the chores while he was out with Makoto.

"Yeah I know I worked harder than I thought," His best friend joked.  This smile he was showing this time didn't look too convincing to Makoto.

"OK a little voice is telling me that you guys planned this scheme," She pondered carefully.  Yukito and Touya looked at each other surprisingly for five minutes then slowly nodded in agreement.  What are they doing? Makoto wondered.  Yukito's smiley face faded as his eyes closed in the same way as Makoto saw yesterday.  His body became lighter and swayed back and forth on its own.  Touya moved over to cover the same bright light surrounding his best friend but Yukito's arm raised as he continued to change in front of Makoto's eyes.  It was as though he wanted her to see this entire theatrical trailer or whatever it was called these days.

Yukito's hair grew longer and pure white and wings grew from his shoulder blades to then cover his entire physique.  Makoto gasped when she began to piece the various body parts through the transformation, trying to work out what was going on.  One thought went to her mind immediately Could it be?.  The closed wings opened and Makoto's question had an instantaneous response.  Her guess was correct and it wasn't done to hallucinations.  

Yue had appeared right in front of her and she was staring straight into his mysterious grey irises.  Makoto didn't even move because her body was still in shock from the transformation she had witnessed.  She couldn't pinch herself from this dream and wake up.  What she was seeing was all too real.  How could Yukito be Yue? It sounded impossible.  Or didn't it? In a matter of seconds Makoto felt the surge of warm feeling travel all over her body as she looked at his stern and silent façade.  

So this was why she felt this same sensation around Yukito.  Now it did make sense after all.  These two people were one.  Yue's wings brushed openly and caused a breeze in the street as he slowly walked towards Makoto.  He lifted her chin up till it was the same level as his face.  

Yue said bluntly, "I was right all along.  You truly *are* the Sailor Senshi of Thunder.  You *are* Sailor Jupiter."

"H-how…how did you…?" Makoto stammered.  Was this what Touya wanted to tell her in the face? Did he know all along she was Sailor Jupiter?

"I could easily sense your power while in Yukito's form." Yue's hand moved to touch her shoulder. "Touya and I were certain you were normal like everyone else in the school.  Your aura was full of magic and it shone in my eyes.  I could see who you really were." Moving a step backward, Makoto's cheeks reddened in nervousness and shock, her eyes lowered to the ground as her face avoided Yue's gaze.  It was still hard to believe this was Yukito's true form.  Wasn't Touya or Sakura just as shocked as she was when they found out Yukito was really Yue? This was a piece of news the other Inner Senshi wouldn't be able to believe.  

"I'm usually suspicious about new people," Touya accounted.  "I'm sorry if I sounded mean to you a few minutes ago but I had to be sure of the truth." His tone switched to an even kinder volume as he spoke to her.  Makoto saw a tiny smile form on his lips and it surely looked realistic here.  He didn't have the stern look anymore.    

"Oh I see.  So as soon as I came to Tomoeda you instantly noticed something weird about me.  Wow, Touya, you've got a gift." She turned on her heel.  "Well now that the truth about me is out guess that's my cue to say goodbye." Touya grabbed her arm and pulled her back.  "What the…? Hey you got we've got each other's answers! What's the problem now?"

"You have to tell Sakura who you are.  She's been telling me why you're always making her nice food and I think she deserves to know the truth about your identity," Touya explained.  "After all you did save her life over the past two or more days." 

"I will remind Cerberus about the past.  I'm certain he remembers you as well, Lady Jupiter," Yue added.  

Makoto couldn't help the flush of shyness creep up her spine when he said that.  It sounded nice to be in royalty but she wasn't really the kind of person to be staged as a gentle princess like Usagi was. 

"Listen, Yue, call me Makoto.  Or Mako-chan.  It's cool to be treated royally but that's not my style, ok?" She smiled innocently.  Yue frowned in bemusement at the puzzling remark 'Lady Jupiter' had suggested to him.  Didn't this guy ever smile like Yukito? She was about to comment on his emotionless façade when to her surprise he did grin lightly from the corner of her eye, showing that he thought her suggested naming was fine.    

Along with Yue, Touya guided Makoto to his house and the tension between them from before was no longer in existence.  In fact Makoto felt a high sense of relief since Yue told her that he and Touya had a hunch she was Sailor Jupiter.  She didn't have to tell them they were wrong because it would too hard to reveal her identity in easy words.  If these were normal people she was talking to, they'd think she was a freak without a doubt.  But Yue and Sakura weren't living in a normal world presently.  

The Clow Mistress, her guardians and Syaoran all had magical powers and so did Jupiter.  The Thunder Senshi had allies who had other identities hidden to the public.  It was good to know she was with the right people for this unknown duty.  Touya replayed Makoto's compliment on him having a gift for being able to sense something weird about her from the first day.  He knew it wasn't completely correct in every way.  The correct term to describe Touya was 'he *did* have a gift'.  A gift that was given up to save Yue.  Makoto was going to get another surprise when she discovered he too had a gift like his sister.

Being cold towards her in school was a precautious act by Touya.  He didn't want his crazy suspicions to get to his head too much whenever he met Makoto during classes.  He had to watch her every move to be sure she wasn't a threat to his sister.  It was a good thing he realised she was on the same side as her, protecting her like Yue and Cerberus did.  And now Touya was open to show more generosity to Makoto for helping Sakura.  He couldn't say his thankful comments out loud yet in case she laughed at him.  For now it was going to stay in his heart for a while.

TBC. 


	11. ch 11

Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 11

Disclaimer: You know the routine.

****

Sakura ran to the door when the bell rang three times in a violent rhythm. Her mouth still had a chunk of the cheesecake Tomoyo had bought for her and it was very difficult for the young cherry blossom to chew in a fast motion. The guest would think she had no manners if she spoke with food in her mouth and answered the door altogether. Sakura mumbled an impatient okay as her hand wrapped round the door handle and opened the door to the house. 

Touya stood by the doorway, looking down on his sister in a moody stare.

"You took a while. What were you up to?" He peeked inside the kitchen and saw the fridge door widely ajar. Hungry gobbling could be heard behind the door and sounds of 'Yum' or 'this food is great' chanted in a quiet volume. Only one person ate food noisily like that. Kero-chan. Sakura could be seen sweat-dropping as she stood by the door and finishing off her own dessert. Yue startled her when he appeared next to her older brother, his wings letting off glittering sounds in the air. 

"Hi Yue. Uh how are you?" Sakura said. Yue revealed his impassive look and didn't smile or say or anything else to his Clow Card Mistress. It was so rare to see him smile like she did. When he was in Yukito's form nine times out of ten he was always smirking to Sakura whenever he saw her around the school grounds and it made her day better than usual. He smiled more than Touya did when they greeted the young girl. 

Touya just thought she was being like the usual younger sibling with a bratty personality and that got on Sakura's nerves. It was normal for siblings to argue like that.

"Kaijuu, you've got a visitor," Touya stated, his head nudged to his left, motioning the visitor to step forward and show herself. Sakura peered round the doorway and immediately pulled back in at the sight of the tall height standing in front of her. Her tiny figure ascended till it met the girl's face. It was Kino Makoto, the girl who made cherry cream cakes and cookies for her and Touya after school. 

"Cerberus will speak with you later. He's…busy," Yue added to Makoto as she stood outside on the steps. Where was that beast anyway? How would he hide from the public when he was such a big size? Makoto couldn't see him anywhere in the kitchen but guessed he must be the one eating loudly behind the fridge door. Sakura glanced back quickly to her guardian. Did he just mention Kero-chan? If Makoto knew who Yue was then that would also mean…she knew that Sakura was the Clow Cards Mistress. 

And she would know about Syaoran's magical powers as well. Did Touya tell her everything? Did Yukito accidentally spill who Sakura was through gossip? Sakura was in a confused trance and didn't know how to utter back to anyone around her. She had to start with the obvious queries. 

"Touya, did you explain who I was to Makoto-chan?" She looked at her older brother suspiciously. A long silence meant no as his response. She turned to the other visitor. "Did you, Yue?" 

He was standing by the sink, ignoring Kero-chan's loud eating adjacent to the fridge. He too was silent and wouldn't reply to his Mistress' question. Sakura frowned in bewilderment then moved her emerald eyes to the new girl. She could sense this girl had powers. Syaoran would feel her strength too if he was here. But the power felt magical and indeed familiar. It reminded her of the vision she had at school of the female warrior who was later discovered as Sailor Jupiter.

Was this what Sakura was feeling? Was she feeling Sailor Jupiter's power right now, adjoining her sweet, innocent face? Nothing else could feel as powerful as this. Surely it had to be her. Makoto nodded lightly then outstretched her left hand in an offering sign.

"I'll explain everything to you," She assured. Sakura looked at Yue and Touya. The both of them agreeably nodded their heads to her, which was a good enough sign to say she could trust Makoto. She took Makoto's hand and closed the door behind her.

"The park is a good place to talk alone," The cherry blossom suggested. 

"Lead the way," Makoto replied, permitting the small brunette haired child to guide her down the Tomoeda street. 

****

They sat on the swings quietly, their legs gently moving up and down on the playground ride. Sunset began to appear in the sky and the shadow forming around the penguin slide started to fade out on the ground as the sun turned into a red shade. Makoto and Sakura weren't blinded by what was left of the sunlight because they were far too indulged with looking at their toes rather than the sky. 

Makoto thought she would sound ridiculous to a twelve-year old girl when she explained about seeing her in a dream and mentioning how it brought her to Tomoeda out of utter coincidence. It wasn't supposed to be a joke anyway and Sakura in fact didn't find this funny at all. Her face was full of serious expression as she listened to Makoto talk non-stop on how she knew Sakura was the Clow Card Mistress. Mentioning that she was Sailor Jupiter did make the cherry blossom gasp in awe, which was the intended reaction Makoto wanted to hear. 

"Syaoran and I thought we were both crazy whenever we saw you in school and sensed something strong," Sakura said and smiled. "I've actually noticed how you and Sailor Jupiter do look the same. I didn't want to jump straight to the conclusion and kept things quiet between my friends." 

"Ha, Touya said the exact thing," Makoto replied. "He said I was suspicious – and not for my reputation as the Karate Maniac." Sakura looked at her strangely. Guess she didn't know about *that* role, did she? Makoto thought her second reputation at school wasn't important and advanced further on the limited knowledge she had about the Clow cards. "Just wanna let you know that I'm still Kino Makoto, ok? I'm only Sailor Jupiter when you see me in my green fuku and everything else. Feel free to keep calling me Makoto." 

"Did you know Yue was Yukito?" Sakura asked, expecting a sudden jump or a reaction of shock from her friend. Makoto nodded firmly and smiled slightly. She told the cherry blossom she could have fainted in front of Touya and Yue if she wasn't in control of herself but the normal reaction to seeing Yue transform in front of one's eyes was brief gasping and speechless expressions. 

She spoke honestly to the Clow Card Mistress and mentioned how it was somewhat of a relief to finally find out why she kept feeling such magical energy from Yukito and noticing how it felt exactly the same as the magic Yue emitted when he was near her. Not only did it feel the same, it WAS Yue all along. Yukito was the disguised form for Yue so that he would be close to Sakura if she needed protection.

"Do you ever wonder why you had this dream, Makoto-chan?" Sakura questioned, slowing down on her swing. 

"Yeah a lot," Makoto replied bluntly. "Do you ask yourself the same question about your vision of Sailor Jupiter?" Sakura stated a very clear 'uh-huh'. "My friends, the other Inner Senshi, they still can't find out the reason why I had this dream or find out who's been sending Youmas to Tomoeda. What I do know is that I'm here to do a job."

"And that's to help me, isn't it?" Sakura guessed. Makoto confirmed her answer was spot on. She was beyond impressed with this little girl. So what she was twelve years old and still considered as very young in Makoto's eyes, her brain knew exactly what it thought and what was happening in this world. Not many kids at this age range would give a damn about paranormal things. 

They'd be too busy spending their money on computer games or ice cream and having fun at school. Makoto couldn't remember the last time she acted like this at Sakura's age. 

Her life changed from turning fourteen after her memories as a Sailor Senshi came back after Luna explained everything to her. She was no longer caring about her reputation as being the karate maniac. The Senshi role proved to be a much better option and she was fighting for good, which was a cooler reason to be using physical force against the enemies. 

Sakura took out her Star cards from her shirt pocket and showed them to Makoto embarrassingly. The pink colour on the back of the cards gave out a young yet nostalgic sensation. Pink was a babyish colour.

Sakura had grown used to keeping the cards with her all the time because they would obey her commands and listen to her voice anytime. She held them as if they were extremely precious and were like close friends to her. Makoto never knew if she had magical powers at the age of twelve. It was quite a painstaking task to try and think into the past when she had her present life to live up to, which then would lead to her future where she would grow older.

"Makoto-chan, before um during the the time when I was still changing the Clow cards into Star cards, I found out that Touya had hidden powers too," Sakura stammered, her tone drifted off till it became wordlessly silent. Makoto could suddenly hear what sounded like guilt as well as sadness in the girl's speech. Sakura's chin descended till it bent inside against her throat and her loose chestnut strands covered her cheeks. 

"What powers did your brother have?" Makoto helpfully asked for her so she could explain more. 

"Touya could see into the spiritual world," She replied. "You know, he used to always suspect Kero-chan was weird when he came into my room. Kero-chan would act as a quiet toy…"

"Wait a minute, who's Kero-chan? You're confusing me here. Do you mean Cerberus?" 

"Cerberus is Kero-chan's true form. As Kero-chan he is much smaller and loves to eat food," Sakura tried to laugh from her statement but all that came out was a stiff choke. She returned to the serious topic regarding her brother. She wasn't exactly sure why she decided to bring this up to Makoto. Aside from Cerberus/Kero-chan, Yue, Touya and Syaoran, Sakura had brought this subject up to a fifth party member. 

"Sakura, what's the problem with Touya having powers? You should both be happy to have a gift," Makoto wondered then spotted something in her talking. A gift! Wait she remembered telling Touya he must have a gift in suspecting her when she first came to Tomoeda. This explained everything now. "Oh so that's how he thought I was suspicious. Duh why didn't I think of that earlier?"

"Well he uh doesn't have his powers anymore," Sakura edited the last sentence. 

Makoto's green irises squinted, "What do you mean? So he didn't use his powers to sense me! Now I'm utterly confused." Sakura seemed to have grown quieter by the next minute and talking to her would most likely become harder for Makoto now. This wasn't a very cheery topic to discuss. That was what Sakura was thinking and so was Makoto. Sakura placed her cards back in her inside pocket and tapped her fingers in a false rhythm on her lap. Something definitely didn't sound right.

"Sakura-chan, is there something else you want to tell me about Touya?" Makoto curiously asked. A teardrop left Sakura's left cheek, which was a good enough indication to Makoto that she was upset and it had something to do with her older brother. She jumped off her swing to bend down in front of Sakura's hunched figure. The sobbing became louder and more tears leaked from her eyes. The last time she spoke about this was with Syaoran and she didn't cry one bit. Now it seemed that she couldn't hold back the ongoing guiltiness. 

"It feels like it's my fault Touya was weak for a few days after giving his powers to Yue. He did it save him and to help me. You should have seen him, Makoto-chan he looked so tired and ill whilst Yukito was wide-awake. It was…" Sakura couldn't describe how it was for her to see Touya in bad shape. Makoto used her imagination all right. Touya looking tired and weak…that wasn't too hard to picture. 

She could see why it was saddening for his younger sister. If Usagi was in the same condition as Touya it was certain that Makoto and the other Inner Senshi would start getting guilty syndromes possessing their bodies for long time periods even when it wasn't their fault to begin with. Makoto couldn't stand seeing this girl cry and decided to do what any friend would do and that was to hug. So she did. She let Sakura's head bury into her stomach, listening to her sobs continue. 

"Sakura, I'm sure Syaoran, Yue, Tomoyo-chan and Cerberus told you it wasn't your fault more than once back then," Makoto encouraged kindly as she stroked Sakura's hair. "You shouldn't have to go through that sad phase again. Touya is back to normal. That's what's important, ok?" The cherry blossom's sobbing died down and she looked up at Makoto, her face filled with red cheeks and red eyes that made her look like a vampire. "You're very lucky to have a caring brother and caring friends. What Touya did was really brave." 

"I guess you're right," Sakura sniffed. 

"Hmm…you and Syaoran seem very close," Makoto suddenly brought up, watching Sakura blush. 

"I care about Sakura with all my heart," Syaoran's voice came in surprisingly. They both looked up to see the Chinese boy observing them behind the penguin slide. 

Makoto broke the gentle hug then smiled cheekily at him, saying, "Do you really?" 

Syaoran's cheeks became redder than Sakura's. He was speechless. It was obvious that they both loved each other deeply. Makoto thought she had read too many of Minako's romance novels all summer and could memorise the many emotions the two main characters in the story pulled off during their rocky relationship or the development of their love towards each other. 

"Syaoran-kun, she really is Sailor Jupiter," Sakura said. 

"Well that ends our curiosity game, doesn't it?" He added in relief. "You did remind me of her and it seems everything is clear to us all now. Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Oh wouldn't you like to know," Makoto commented humorously. 

"I want to know," The Chinese boy jumped up impatiently. Makoto was a little surprised in his challenging approach towards her. This wasn't a joke, was it? Was he actually asking to spar with her? The truth is, she didn't want to fight him. Not because he was younger than her. It just wouldn't be worth her time. She had had to be a sympathetic person to a little girl who was depressed about an aspect she had held back to herself.

"You sound like Meilin," Sakura giggled. Syaoran gasped at her insult, which developed an uncontrollable grin from Makoto. He covered his mouth and looked straight past Sakura's head. "Syaoran-kun?" The cherry blossom and Makoto looked behind them to see what he was so shocked about. Was the insult about Meilin very offensive? Sakura didn't mean to make it sound stupid. Then they saw what made Syaoran react out of utter amazement. Sakura's eyes grew larger happily when she saw the other figure coming to see them. 

"Meilin-chan!" She exclaimed. The Chinese girl stretched her hands out as Sakura danced around with her joyfully. So this was Meilin, was it? Makoto could tell this girl was a fighter like Syaoran was. Chinese people did have an admiration by other people for their pride in martial arts. That was one reason why she did start learning karate - to experience the same pride and discipline as Chinese martial arts achieved. 

"Syaoran, your mother told me everything you said to her on the phone," Meilin cheerily said to her cousin, winking. "I heard my name mentioned just now. What are you guys talking about? Is it about Sailor Jupiter?" Everyone looked at her uncertainly, wondering how to explain their conversation. The three kids turned to Makoto for advice on what to do next. 

Meilin saw the tallest girl among the four of them and bowed slowly before introducing herself. "I guess *you* must be Sailor Jupiter from the way everyone's looking at you. According to Syaoran, you sound like an amazing warrior." Syaoran wasn't sure what to respond to her but only gave a courteous smile. Makoto frowned at this Chinese girl. Was she really to be trusted? 

"It's okay Makoto-chan, I forgot to tell you that Meilin is our friend. She was a great team player back in the old days," Sakura stated, smiling with Meilin. "She helped me catch some of the Clow cards."

Meilin reminded Makoto of herself actually. Her fists were small for the moment but when she would reach Makoto's age she was going to have a tough pair of hands to use as weapons. 

"Do you want me to explain everything from where I learnt fighting to my life as a Sailor Senshi?" Makoto asked the three kids. 

"Ha-ha maybe you could go one-on-one with me or Syaoran," Meilin jokingly said. OK Makoto could see why Sakura said Syaoran acted like Meilin a few minutes ago. It was the enthusiasm of learning more from another fighter. Maybe they wanted to rival the Sailor Senshi of Thunder in hand-to-hand combat. Kids these days. They were full of curiosity and nosiness. Makoto started to give them a long story about her life as a Karate Maniac in her first school and her life as a Sailor Senshi over the last five years.

**** 

"It seems they both have created quite an immediate bond, haven't they?" Yue noticed as he watched the intrigued audience listen to Makoto speak in the playground. 

Touya stood next to him, observing the amazing development this new female warrior had made since her arrival in Tomoeda and her first meeting with Sakura. They were both hiding near trees that covered most of the view of the main playground. 

"I'm glad my sister is smiling again," Touya said. His eyes mainly focused on Makoto She looks like someone who is wiling to sacrifice anything to help my sister. 

Indeed she reminded him of himself. The only difference was that Makoto was Sailor Jupiter, a fighter and protector. Touya was an ordinary boy who didn't have special abilities any longer. Yue was capable of seeing emotions lie on the Kinomoto siblings' faces. He had seen them everyday in Yukito's form. He practically knew when they were happy and what they liked to eat. 

"I'm certain Lady Jupiter or Makoto will do her best to keep Sakura safe," Yue mentioned. 

"I know she will. Makoto has made my sister happier happier than that brat, Syaoran by making her food and for helping her in the last few days," Touya responded. "It makes me trust her more."

"I feel the same way," Yue agreed She is extraordinary. How I wished I could have known her more back in the Silver Millennium. His feelings were becoming very mysterious since this girl came into this town. How he wished he could understand himself more. 

****

A shadow watched upon the four figures speaking to each other in the playground, his eyes observed in true impressiveness and satisfactory. The Thunder Senshi had been doing very well in protecting the Clow Card Mistress from the last Youmas recently. She would have to work harder than ever before if she was going to face the real opponents coming her way very soon.

"Our time is very near, isn't it?" A female voice approached his back. 

"In another day, yes," He replied. "You and the rest of the girls will take your revenge out on this Sailor Senshi. She's on her own so it should be easy for you to fight her."

"Master, I cannot thank you enough for bringing us back to life, allowing revenge to be our mission," The female complimented then left her master to stand by himself once again. Let's see how you take on these opponents, Sailor Jupiter He thought playfully. 

TBC.

See there was plenty of interaction between Makoto and Sakura. Did it surprise you that I brought Meilin back? I dunno why but when writing that paragraph I just couldn't resist bringing her into this story. 

_Kimmy- _Hmm…there wouldn't be much of a story if Makoto told Sakura on the first page of the story, "Hi I'm Sailor Jupiter and I'm here to protect you," would it? Then it would be the end in less than one chapter, right? I suppose I wanted to spread the plot out by creating some obstacles.  Make the characters suspicious for as long as possible XD.  From the beginning of the story Sakura has no idea who Makoto really is and assumes she's a friend of Touya's who's good at cooking. She doesn't know she is Sailor Jupiter. When Makoto first saw Sakura in person she couldn't be sure if this was the girl she saw in her dream and she wasn't sure what her personal duty in Tomoeda was - apart from the training course in catering. 

Makoto had to be sure from the beginning that she was in the right place with the right person and decided to play safe for now in case she was protecting the wrong person. 

The only time Makoto would become Sailor Jupiter would be when trouble comes looking for Sakura. Makoto's role here in this story shows that when there's trouble she's around at the right time because she either knows trouble is around or because fate had given her luck and showed her where trouble was. 

I know I've not mentioned this anywhere in the story so I may as well mention it here. Syaoran and Sakura could tell something was up in school and it just happened to be from Makoto. They didn't want to say anything and kept this secret to themselves. Touya has been intrigued by Makoto's mysteriousness all along. He has the look. Come on take a peek at his face when he was keeping his eye on Hiiragizawa Eriol whenever he was with Sakura. He was being suspicious there. 

Yue knows Jupiter from the past and more will be explained later when possible in the next chapters on what he knows or feels about her. Yue, Syaoran, Cerberus, Sakura and Syaoran all have powers anyway but Makoto didn't know that yet until Touya. If Sakura told her entire class she had powers, they would certainly freak out, wouldn't they? Only Tomoyo and Syaoran know throughout the whole of the class because Sakura trusts them deeply and they are her real friends.  Hope this all makes sense ^_^;; 


	12. ch 12

Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 12

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.

AN: Oops I just realized I forgot to write something at the end of the last chapter. What I wanted to say was this – Makoto didn't know Yue, Cerberus, Sakura or Syaoran had powers until Touya sort of forced her to confess who she really was and when Yue came to see them. 

****

Seeing Cerberus as a little creature rather than in its huger furrier form was a brief difficulty for Makoto to get rid of while she sat with Sakura, Syaoran, Touya, Yukito and Meilin in the living room. Tomoyo came five minutes ago after Sakura called her up to tell her Meilin was here to visit in Tomoeda. Like the cherry blossom, she was also thrilled to see another old face again. How fitting it was to see the old gang reuniting together in one house. Sakura thought it was like a dream come true that everyone close to her were holding each others hands in a circle. It was picture perfect.

"Kero-chan, this is the last cake you're going to eat!" Sakura bossily yelled at her guardian beast. Kero-chan ignored the crumbs spreading over his face as he scoffed the food in his mouth. Touya, Yukito and Makoto were the only ones frowning among the group. Why did Kero-chan have a big appetite? It was really out of character for a guardian beast that was supposed to possess magical powers in its true form. 

"You do realize you're spilling crumbs on my clothes, don't you?" Meilin angrily pointed out, showing the mess on her black pleated skirt. Kero-chan gave a snide 'humph' to the Chinese girl. So what if Syaoran's 'girlfriend' was back. She was just as easy to annoy than her cousin. 

"Oh I'm sorry. I didn't know," Kero-chan replied. "What brings you back to Tomoeda? I hope it isn't to wind Sakura up or be better than her."

"Keep your stupid comments to yourself, you stuffed toy!" Meilin shrieked and shook her fists warningly. Kero-chan growled and stuck his tongue out to her. Syaoran groaned at him, defending Meilin. 

"Come on, Kero-chan, Meilin isn't like she used to be. She's become a lot nicer. Ask Makoto-chan. She thought she was nice when she first met her. Right?" Sakura gave a hopeful stare at the tall brunette sitting next to Touya. What the heck was she supposed to say? She only spoke to Meilin for about half an hour. Well she was nice Makoto guessed. Maybe she could just show her generous manners and make Sakura happy. Jade eyes turned to the two boys sitting on the same couch as her. Couldn't Touya and Yukito help out?

"Uh…yeah Meilin was friendly. We spoke for a long time in the playground," Makoto said. "Honest!" That was the truth, wasn't it? What would Kero-chan know? He wasn't there when Meilin and Syaoran came by to see Makoto and Sakura talking. Kero-chan raised one eyebrow as he looked back at Meilin and Syaoran, who were both angrier with him than before. 

"Hmm…I'll let you off because I believe what Sailor Jupiter says," He replied sneakily. This argument reminded Makoto of Rei and Usagi's squabbling back in the earlier school years. Yeah they still argued but it wasn't on anything stupid or unimportant. Makoto didn't want to get involved in another disagreement.

"Guys, take it easy, ok? Just be friends," Makoto innocently smiled. "Because if you don't...." The smile left her and a deeply serious façade replaced her expressions. A warning finger rose to the air. "You've seen what I can do. Don't tempt me." The last three words were enough to give them a warning. Meilin didn't have to see the worrying look on Syaoran's face to promptly agree with him. Makoto saw Yukito and Touya smile enjoyably at her acting and she joined along with the happy faces club. 

Kero-chan nodded acceptably and said, "I respect your words, Lady Jupiter." 

"Uh again! Sailor Jupiter, Mako-chan or Makoto is fine by me, ok?" Makoto insisted embarrassingly at the royalty she was being given. Along with Yue, Kero-chan told her he did remember seeing Makoto and the other Inner Senshi in the Silver Millennium. He thought each one of them was full of bravery and individual strength as well as skilled talents. He, Yue and Clow Reed could see the Sailor Senshi were protective of their princess and were exceptional bodyguards to her. In secret Yue and Cerberus both thought Sailor Jupiter was the one who had the utmost willingness to protect Princess Serenity, along with her physically powerful fighting ability. She was one of the rare Senshi to actually give up an ongoing fight even when battered. She could take a lot more pain than most people could.

Although Princess Serenity had the vision of a goddess, Jupiter was someone who had the appearance of an Amazonian warrior in Greek mythology. Yue had never seen a female with this physique before. He thought it was a rare sight of beauty. Sailor Jupiter or Makoto didn't have the looks of an arrogant warrior who constantly went past people to show off the different abilities that normal humans wouldn't have. She was too kind and protective to even do that sort of rubbish. Was that what fascinated Yue?

"Yukito-kun, are you okay?" Touya asked his quiet best friend. Yukito rubbed his eyes behind his glasses and smiled as his way of saying yes. Inside the exterior form Yue was still watching Makoto as she happily laughed with Sakura and her friends. He loved seeing how her green orbs blended in with her charming laugh. They didn't squint idiotically or lose its huge shape; they kept on staying as they were. Makoto's eyes reminded him of Sakura's innocent emerald irises. And her laugh was almost identical to the Clow Mistress'.

"I better get going," Yukito said, standing up. Touya and Makoto followed him to the door. 

"Yukito, you won't tell anyone that I'm you know who, won't you?" Makoto laughed shyly. The boy with glasses couldn't quite understand what she meant. Who was she? He didn't know yet – unless the other being inside him had some ideas. "Oh sorry! I just thought you already um…" 

"Oh it's okay, Makoto. I'm sure what Yue will tell me is clear enough. Whatever your secret is, I'm certain to keep it from everyone else in school," Yukito understood secrecy as if he were a mathematical genius. Makoto thankfully nodded to him before he left to walk down the street.

"Well guess it's my turn to go," She decided and grabbed her shoes from outside the doorway. Her head turned to Touya. "See you at school tomorrow." Touya nodded, leaving the door ajar for her to exit. Suddenly Meilin quickly approached her, grabbing onto her hand. What was this?

"Makoto, please come to Syaoran's house with us. Please? You should have dinner with us and then we can do some real sparring!" Meilin glanced back at Syaoran. "What do you think, Syaoran?" The Chinese boy blushed furiously, which humoured Sakura and Tomoyo. He didn't expect his cousin to be told every word he had said to his mother on the phone and then say them out loud to Makoto herself. Sure he did mean all the compliments he said about Makoto's fighting as a Sailor Senshi but Meilin was embarrassing him way too much and he couldn't take it.

Understanding the boy's nervousness, Makoto stated, "Syaoran if you don't want me to come that's okay." 

"Come!" Syaoran burst out in a fierce stammer, much to the surprise of everyone. "Sakura and Tomoyo can come too. Um Wei is making fresh Won Ton tonight. You might like it." Makoto exchanged amazed glances to Tomoyo and Sakura. So the decision was finally made then. Everyone got themselves ready, putting on their shoes and coats and stepping outside into the evening air. It had to be dinnertime now. The smell of various foods spread across the houses in the same street as the Kinomoto residence and it affected everyone's stomach. 

Makoto wasn't sure what got her into this. She didn't think she had personal fans. Meilin was definitely showing she wanted to know so much about her martial arts whilst Syaoran was too shy to admit what he said on admiring her strength (and beauty too). Boys were like that, weren't they? Touya called Makoto's name by the doorway as he watched the other kids walk on together. She turned around, her face glowing in the night sky like a white statue in middle of the town. 

"Watch her for me, ok?" Touya pleaded. The Thunder Senshi smiled affirmatively to him. It had been less than a week and already she felt close to Sakura and her older brother. What were the chances of making fast friends? It wasn't easy to make friends in a matter of seconds. You had to get to know the person for months to realize he or she was a true friend of yours. Makoto could tell there was a separate bond developing between Sakura, herself and Touya. She ascended up the stairs again towards Touya, her face raised to level his eyes.

"You can count on me, Touya-kun," She insisted, reaching for his left palm and holding it firmly between both her hands as though pressing a slice of ham in a sandwich. Touya held back a shocked gasp when she did this. The longhaired brunette let her hands go and jumped down the steps rapidly.

"Well, she is something, isn't she?" Kero-chan flew by Touya's shoulder. Having his hand held like that made Touya feel something towards Makoto. Yeah it did feel like love…but it wasn't exactly romantic. It was something else he couldn't work out yet.

"Yeah…she is an amazing girl," Touya replied distantly.

****

Syaoran, Sakura, Meilin, Tomoyo and Makoto giggled as they ate the hot Won Ton pieces on the balcony. They could easily see the steam from their bowls travel past the moonlight and clouds as well as the lovely smell the Won Ton diffused. Meilin's Won Ton pieces kept dropping from her chopsticks carelessly, giving her a hard time. Syaoran told her to poke right into the meat to get a better hold on the food and then chew it slowly. Tomoyo and Sakura thought it was nice to have Chinese food for a change rather than the usual Japanese dishes they had in Tomoeda. 

Sakura loved eating Chinese and Japanese cuisine. She knew Kero-chan would like Won Ton undoubtedly. He'd probably eat the entire bowl in the kitchen.

"How's the food? Do you like it?" Syaoran asked the three guests. 

"We love it, Syaoran-kun," Tomoyo replied gladly. Sakura gave out a loud 'Mmm' remark. 

"Well you have to thank me because I brought the food all the way from Hong Kong," Meilin explained, grinning in a slightly showing off attitude. "Wei is being a nice man by boiling the food for us to eat and serving it to us."

"We have to thank you and Wei for the food AND thank Syaoran for inviting us," Makoto added. Syaoran bowed his head down to hide his timidity from the other four girls. 

"I'll take the bowls back in." Sakura took everyone's bowl and placed them on the tray that came with the food. Syaoran moved forward to take the tray of used bowls but the cherry blossom refused his help, telling him to sit down while she returned everything to Wei. "It's okay, Syaoran-kun. You stay here and relax." With the assistance of Tomoyo opening the door, she disappeared into the apartment. Meilin followed the two friends inside to get drinks for everyone. It was tempting to go inside as well as the supper was over but Makoto couldn't help noticing Syaoran sitting red-faced on his chair by the left corner of the balcony. Meilin was his cousin yet thought the boy meant more than just a relation to him. She could tell the girl was a previous rival to Sakura. Her sneaky grin did show earlier signs of rivalry and it must have given Syaoran a hard time when his cousin was around. Perhaps she didn't want Sakura to be as close to Syaoran as she was.

Makoto liked watching the four friends have fun together. She hadn't had this much fun in a long time. All her friends were in Juuban and aside from these four, Yukito and Touya were considered her friends as well. She was glad to have known them on the first day here. Not only were they friendly but also they were all connected to the person she was supposed to protect. It made her life more warming and comfortable because she was able to get to know Sakura's close friends and relatives. Syaoran interrupted her joyful daydream by starting a conversation.

"Makoto, sorry about Meilin. I normally don't stick with her when she tries to embarrass me," He apologetically began. 

"She's a sweet girl," Makoto responded cheerfully. "It just shows that someone um…admires me. Haven't felt that for a while."

"I had no idea she'd come to Japan," Syaoran admitted honestly. "It wouldn't be easy for her to fight this strange thing going on. She doesn't have powers like Sakura-chan and I do. She's…"

"…Normal," Makoto finished for him. "Well I'm normal in this form too you know. Unless I transform, only then would I possess electrical magic. I can tell you're worried about your cousin - just like you worry about Sakura." The Chinese boy flinched at the mention of Sakura's name. Was Makoto telling the truth? Meilin may have embarrassed him over the past but did he really care about her anyway? "You don't have to be shy on how you feel towards them both, Syaoran-kun. It proves you're a smart boy." She patted his shoulder in a friendly gesture then walked over to the other side of the balcony, looking at the other tall buildings standing above the ground in the night. Seeing the town in this view made Makoto feel protective and powerful among the people because she knew trouble would come any time soon and she would have to be ready to fight.

"I wonder why fate chose you to be a new guardian for Sakura," Syaoran commented. Makoto's head glanced in his direction at this statement. He REALLY was smart. "You seem close to her whether you're in your fuku or not."

"Yeah I know," She agreed. "What makes me curious is who is starting all this. Is this a new destiny for me? Who would make me do this protecting job? Surely it's not God. Geez I'm in confusion. I'm not the best thinker." Her ponytail covered her face as she looked over the balcony. Her confusion zoomed off into the air when she saw something crawling its way on the streets, scaring people passing by. 

Makoto stood back behind the door and wondered what the hell was going on. Was this the latest Youma for tonight? Someone was messing with nature here and doing a damn good job of it. Sakura, Tomoyo and Meilin came back to the balcony and looked down to see where the noise was coming from. 

"What is it?" Sakura asked. Makoto wasn't able to explain as she speeded her way down the stairs to the bottom floor. Syaoran, Tomoyo, Sakura and Meilin followed her lead, knowing this was definitely trouble. It was possible that they were facing another live tree or something that was originally part of forest nature. When they reached the bottom, Makoto ran outside to the middle of the road and couldn't believe there were various flying branches all over the place. 

It was hard to see where the source of this gigantic plant was. At least five branches were spreading across the town and it was scaring the hell out of the publicans. Makoto looked at the moving branches carefully from a distance with her friends. The plant parts looked familiar to her but she couldn't tell where she remembered seeing them from. Who was it that was controlling these so-called trees?

The four observers gasped at the bright electricity forming around Makoto as she transformed into Sailor Jupiter. The power had begun to surge into her and she ready to battle the enemy. 

"Wow, so this is what Sailor Jupiter really looks like," Meilin was in awe. "Awesome."

"I agree," Sakura added. "Let's get ready." Her star wand came into its true form and Syaoran's sword drew into action. Sailor Jupiter took her eyes off the moving plants and looked down at the four eager kids raring to aid her. 

"Stay back for now. Only help when I'm down, ok? I have to see who this is first," Jupiter suggested. Meilin was about to protest but Jupiter shook her head. "This may too dangerous. Stay together and remember what I said." Her feet took off to the other side of the street, approaching the moving branches that wouldn't stop terrorizing. She waved her arms to grab their attention. All the moving branches stopped moving then turned to her. Good, she could drive them away from the public. 

Something appeared in a flash in front of Jupiter's eyes and someone seemed to be restrained by the thick leaves around his waist. Could it be…? But it was though. Whoever this opponent was he, she or it had taken Touya by force and he was unconscious in the bonds. Oh god, Touya! Jupiter thought shockingly. Why did enemies do this? Taking personal things from you was just so unfair. 

Jupiter didn't have to look back when she heard the others screaming in fear as they too saw Touya in the chains of branches. Sakura ran past her to get to her older brother. Dammit what was the girl thinking? She should have listened to what Jupiter told her.

"SAKURA, DON'T!" Jupiter screamed. Sakura wasn't able to escape the incoming branch moving towards her. It grabbed her by the waist and lifted her high into the air. The other branches suddenly vanished from Jupiter's eyes and went deep into the ground. Where the hell were they travelling to next? Oh no! There were other vulnerable people. She called Sakura's friends to get away. Her voice only reached them a second late as the other branches caught Syaoran, Meilin and Tomoyo as well. 

Everyone's necks were in tight wraps and they weren't able to breathe or move underneath their wrapped states. What the hell do I do now? Who's doing this? Jupiter thought anxiously. Out of nowhere other objects moved from beneath the road. It somehow was linked to the branches holding the victims and Jupiter worked out that the branches were part of the arms of some classic enemies in her Sailor Senshi past. 

"Damn them Doom & Gloom girls!" Jupiter cursed. Those weird females were able to spread their plant-like tentacles in this way. Jupiter knew she recognised these parts from somewhere. It was coming back to her now. Why did those ugly bitches have to return? Who was stupid enough to revive them from their deaths? All five Doom & Gloom girls showed themselves onto the surface and the leader had a smug face as she held Touya and Sakura in her arms, entwining them between the thick branches.

"We meet again," The leader said. Jupiter knew she could really use some help here. What about the other Inner Senshi? They could help her. All she needed was her communicator. She tried to find it in her back pocket of her fuku but the Doom and Gloom leader knew exactly what she intended to do. "Don't even think about calling your friends. Revenge will be taken out on you!"

Lucky me Jupiter swore silently then let her arms by her side. She wasn't sure what to do next. It seemed her job was going to be a failure. She let the enemy have Sakura and her friends. Even Touya. Five girls against one wouldn't be equal. 

"You may as well give yourself up," The second girl said then threw one of her tentacles to Jupiter who dodged it in time by a somersault. "Stand still!" More flying branches came at the Thunder Senshi and it was getting more harder to lift her body up each time to evade the attacks. The next strike caught Jupiter's arm and in the next minute her body was pulled up towards the second Doom and Gloom girl, who said, "Big mistake to let yourself be caught."

"Actually, it was a good mistake." Jupiter was glad the grip around her arm was loose enough to escape from and she was able to fight back against the Doom and Gloom girl with a smash to the face and then an elbow to the chin. She forced her opponent to the ground, using her as a safe landing object and jumped off as soon as the second Doom & Gloom girl hit the concrete headfirst then went into unconsciousness. 

The fourth Doom and gloom girl let out a sudden gasp when a blaze of fire zoomed past her face and she released Tomoyo and Meilin. Miraculously Cerberus came to the rescue and caught them as he flew up and landed on all feet. Jupiter couldn't have been more relieved by his good timing. Syaoran managed to lift his sword and cut the third Doom and Gloom girl's branches to free himself, his body dropping at fast speed. He used Wind magic to bring him down to the ground slowly. 

"Who are these monsters?" Syaoran questioned as he ran over to Jupiter.

"Old enemies," She replied immediately. "They're the reason I died."

"What do you mean? Did they kill you?" The Chinese boy exclaimed.

"I killed two of them and it cost me my life." She clasped her fists together. "It was the first time I touched death. Throughout my life I've been to the other world and back. It's quite weird you know." 

Cerberus flew by to disrupt their conversation. Meilin was next to him, her face in shock. The guardian beast told Jupiter that Tomoyo had been taken to a safe hiding place away from the battle scene. 

"We have to get Sakura and Touya back!" He insisted worriedly. "The other two are getting away with them." Everyone could hear Sakura calling them at a far distance. The branches were wrapped so tightly around her she couldn't move her muscles to escape. The Doom and Gloom girls should be taking out their anger on Jupiter not Sakura. They wanted to threaten the Thunder Senshi in every way, didn't they?

"Where's Yue?" Jupiter curiously looked everywhere around her, hoping to see a long white haired angel flying to them. 

"I tried to call at Yukito's house but he wouldn't answer the phone," Cerberus stated with concern. " What could be wrong with him?" Nobody knew what the possibility could be. Yue was at his full strength. He shouldn't be tired NOW, should he?

****

The same shadowy figure that watched Makoto in the playground rested by Yue's sleeping body and watched him breathe slowly in his bed with a steady rhythm. "I'll see how long Sailor Jupiter will take to rescue Sakura and Touya and eliminate the Doom and Gloom girls all at once while you are absent. Fight this tiredness if you can, Yue." He turned to leave through the door, an enjoyable smile formed on his lips. This was turning out to be an excellent game for the Thunder Senshi. Was she proving to be worthy all along? 

Yue was too tired to hear all the words the visitor had given him. But the voice sounded indeed familiar. And the magical aura he sensed had a similar feel too. How could it be Clow Reed? Eriol was in England. Why would he want to come back to Tomoeda when the final test to help Sakura change the Clow cards was over? What was the point? Sakura had passed. End of story. 

Then again, things weren't all they seemed in this world now. Makoto had told him that because she experienced it all the time in Juuban. I have to help her and Sakura! They need me Yue thought, forcing himself to open his eyes. Just how hard would it take him to fight off his unusual tiredness?

TBC.


	13. ch 13

Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 13

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.

****

For the tenth time tonight Jupiter was able to dodge each attack from the Doom & Gloom girls crossing her path. The leader was further away from the current fight scene, likely to be giving Sakura and Touya a hard time in their imprisoned bondage between the branches. Cerberus, Syaoran and Meilin weren't sure how many more hours they could cope against these merciless creatures. They had to keep reminding themselves this wasn't a Clow card they were capturing here. These were real monsters that belonged to darkness.

Flying branches came at each person and they all moved in various directions to dodge the attacks coming at them. Syaoran and Cerberus' fire magic fused well together against the four current Doom & Gloom girls but the effect wasn't enough to put them down. 

"It feels like we've been fighting forever," Syaoran panted and wiped off the sweat on his forehead. His sword sliced down at one branch but missed its target and instead touched the ground. 

"I can see how it took all the Inner Senshi's lives," Cerberus commented as he jumped up and down and breathed fire.

"They are still powerful since our last battle against them," Jupiter added. "Crap. This isn't getting anywhere! I've gotta try calling my friends. Maybe they can help defeat these girls again like in the past." She averted her eyes away from the four Doom Bloom girls flying on the other side as her hand reached into her back pocket. It was hard to jump and miss the strikes coming in while using one hand to do another thing. The leader did say it wasn't wise for Jupiter to call her friends. She was smart and knew what this Sailor Senshi had in mind. Jupiter managed to find the communicator and held it in her palm, quickly pressing the buttons.

"What did I say about calling your friends?" The Doom Gloom leader's voice echoed loudly in her eardrums. Jupiter saw her rise into the air with Sakura and Touya. "Attempt to contact them again and I will slowly kill the Clow card mistress and her brother." To demonstrate her threat she charged a mightier fire blast into the hostages' bodies. No! What do I do? Jupiter bit her tongue sharply to rid off the bitterness she was seeing. This was a horrible idea of fun for the Doom & Gloom girls. 

"T-Touya," Sakura whispered to her half-awake brother. His eyelids opened briefly with force but then closed again. The younger sister knew she had to get him out of this. He wasn't involved in this fight or whatever it was. He may have been trying to help her but Touya wasn't the right person to fight tonight, especially when he didn't have his special abilities anymore. He was a normal being like everyone else was. Sakura raised her star wand and tried to think up an action plan to help she and Touya escape.

Maybe Wood could bind tightly around the leader and she'll drop her baits to the ground freely. It was worth a shot. Sakura pulled out the Wood card and raised her star wand slowly, preparing to summon it. But the Doom & Gloom leader saw her plan and gave her the torturous burning again. Sakura's body felt like it was above the crater of a volcano, her veins popped out onto her skin. She was worried that she would explode anytime. Her scream became louder across the street. Everyone else fighting could hear her cry past the four Doom & Gloom girls blocking their way to the leader.

"Sakura-chan!" Syaoran beckoned. As he reached to the other side his struggling sprint stopped suddenly. His huge brown eyes looked up at the stalk standing in front of his smaller size. A familiar figure was wrapped firmly in between the branches. How much eviller could these creatures get? Syaoran could see what Jupiter despised in these opponents. "M-mother! No!" He ran to the sleepy woman hanging above the ground. 

Oh god not again. It has to be a trick like before! Jupiter's memories of the fight against the Doom Bloom girls repeated. They were using the illusions again. She was fooled by it and was their first victim to die. Was this déjà vu? Here she was, the only Sailor Senshi who knew these creatures from the past and was likely to be their first victim to die for the second time. Then they would turn to the other Inner Senshi once she was eliminated. At this point Jupiter thought déjà vu was not cool.

"Syaoran, it's an illusion. Don't fall for it!" She screamed to him. He turned his back, half-surprised by the Thunder Senshi's warning. How could she say that when this was his very own mother? No one could impersonate his mother. There was only one Mrs Li in his family. It was too late for him to reconsider this warning as the shell of his mother vanished and the second and third Doom & Gloom girl lengthened their branches to bind the Chinese boy through each body part. His sword dropped to the ground while he struggled against the holds on his arms and feet.

"What did they do?" Meilin couldn't understand, her fists shook through fear and enragement.

"They can create illusions of our loved ones," Jupiter explained. "It's a strategy to get our defences down. That was how I died." After the Inner Senshi regained their memories of the first battle and the aftermath, Ami told her friends how she had found a way of stopping the illusion spell. It was easy to remember, wasn't it? Jupiter whacked her temples to try to recall what Ami said. Think, girl, think. Syaoran yelled painfully from the combination of fire and lightning charging into his body.

"I have to help him!" Meilin ran to the second, third and fifth Doom & Gloom girl and started to hit away at their branches. Pulling the branches off was just as hard. Jupiter and Cerberus thought the girl was crazy to do this alone but decided to help Meilin anyhow. It was her determination to save her cousin that was making her fight strongly. "LEAVE SYAORAN ALONE, YOU MEANIES!" 

Everyone scratched, punched and kicked at the branches restraining the boy. Impatience and anger was causing the holds to break off instantly and the two Doom Bloom girls were losing control of their hostage. The fourth Doom & Gloom girl came over to aid them but Cerberus flew into the air to completely cook her till she was dust. He had never been this ticked off at all before, which could explain the high strength in his fire magic.

After the branches freed from Syaoran, Meilin and Jupiter came face to face with the third and second Doom & Gloom girls. Jupiter threw a Sparkling Wide Pressure at them both, watching the electricity stun them both. Meilin went in for the strike and elbowed the second Doom & Gloom girl in the stomach then a swift kick following it. Jupiter swung both the third and fifth Doom & Gloom girls by the arms till they landed on top of her partner. 

She was about to think up a way to finish them both when her mind clicked, "Wait!" 

"What is it?" Cerberus asked. 

"Ami said the weakness was in their heads. If I could get to the leader, I'd smash her item on her forehead and that will take away that trick for good," Jupiter uttered then looked back at where the leader was. Sakura and Touya looked weaker. "The leader is the toughest out of the five. Well - make that four now." Cerberus nodded in confirmation about defeating Doom & Gloom girl number four. "Have you tried contacting Yue again?" The beast shook his head. "Hold on. Maybe I could tell Sakura to destroy the weakness. She's right next to the leader…but she's not strong enough to be able fight back yet."

"I'll go tell her," Cerberus suggested. Jupiter's eyes widened, almost saying 'You won't stand a chance'. "It will be a distraction to the leader. And on the way I will go to Yukito's house to see what has happened to Yue. Besides…you have to deal with those two." 

Meilin and Jupiter looked around and the three remaining Doom & Gloom girls flew up again. Syaoran appeared alive and well on his feet. He gestured to Cerberus to go, insisting he could help the girls in this fight. And so the guardian beast flew away to leave his three allies to combat the two female Youmas. He knew he was the only one who could do this duty. He was the only one who had wings. It was painful to see Sakura and Touya in exhaustion as he flew near the Doom & Gloom leader. Sakura sensed his presence closely, her brunette head looking up with a relieved face. 

"Kero-chan," She whispered hoarsely. Cerberus could see she was definitely wiped out from the dangling of her arms and the cuts on her skin. The Doom & Gloom leader sharply diverted her head to the flying beast to her left. She certainly wasn't happy to see him. 

"Destroy her headband. That is what causes the illusions. Hurry!" Cerberus babbled as he swiftly flew away to miss the fierce set of branches zooming up towards him. Sakura didn't understand. What headband. She couldn't see any on the female creature. The leader growled from two missed attacks at Cerberus and realised he had gotten away safely from her battlefield. 

Now I see it Sakura's eyes woke up rapidly. The headband sat nicely on the forehead of the Doom & Gloom leader. So all she had to do was destroy it. What would it do? Would it kill these women? Sakura wasn't sure of the result. If only Jupiter could be here to tell her but she was busy fighting off the other two girls. Sakura swirled her end of the star wand and jabbed it hard into the Doom & Gloom leader's forehead, hearing the smash of the glass collide underneath the staff. The leader shook her head in shock. 

Did it work? Hell of course it did. Sakura could see she was extremely annoyed by this succeeded attempt. 

"Curse that Sailor Senshi. The ice one must have reminded her of the weakness," The leader mumbled. "Ouch that hurt." Not only did Sakura destroy the illusion ability, it must have given the leader a big headache now. Sakura spotted the looseness of the holds around her waist and found herself dropping at top speed. Touya was a few feet away from her as he fell as well. She called his name loudly to wake him up. He couldn't seem to hear her. The wind was really making noise during this fall. 

Sakura used Fly and caught Touya by her arms. Some relief came into her though she forgot that her brother was twice her size; thus the weight doubled too and the fast falling resumed again. She wished Cerberus could help her out here. Then another thought struck her. She used Windy to give her a safer landing. It was strange to her that Windy was more powerful than it usually was. Sakura landed on the ground with Touya's head in her arms then saw the reason for the additional power. Syaoran had given Windy some aid using his magic. He ran to Sakura and hugged her closely to him.

"Are you okay?" He asked. She murmured a gentle yes then looked at her unconscious brother. Why did Touya have to be involved in her trouble? Whether it was his choice to be involved or because he was bait didn't make a difference. He seemed to be there sometimes when Sakura was in trouble. The Doom & Gloom leader screamed angrily at the loss of her hostages, giving plenty of attention to her friends who dismissed their battle against Meilin and Jupiter to join their leader's side. 

"We were having fun as well," Meilin moaned briefly and spotted Sakura and Touya. "Sakura-chan, thank goodness you're all right." Jupiter raised her hand to the Chinese girl to be silent. She saw what was in Sakura's hands. The ever so familiar face she had grown used to seeing each day at Chez Nori. The thick hair and dark eyes. This was someone she considered as close. Jupiter understood what Sakura said about her brother and worrying he would get hurt. 

She bent down by his head, feeling his neck, "Oh Touya. How could they do this to you? Hey! I'll try to contact my friends again. See if I can get them to come here quickly." She found her communicator and started her communication. However she didn't get any luckiness once more when her communicator was retrieved and flew into the hands of the Doom Bloom leader. 

"You never listen, do you?" She simply burned the communicator using a single flame and watched the burning object disintegrate to the ground. Damn. So much for getting help from the rest of the Inner Senshi. Jupiter may not get it at all at this level. Looking back down, she stroked Touya's sleepy face. Anger began to bite into her. Enough was enough. If those girls wanted her to die first painfully then so shall it be.

Jupiter stood up on her feet, clenched her fists and marched past the three fighters next to her. Sakura grabbed her arm to pull the Thunder Senshi back a little. Dammit she didn't have time to chitchat. Reluctantly Jupiter looked at the cherry blossom for five minutes. Two pairs of green eyes locked into each other without exchanging words. It was like a telepathic communication taking place. The Thunder Senshi knew what Sakura wanted to tell her about not doing this or she'll die and that sort of crap.

It was already heard enough times. She didn't need another voice to tell her that. 

"I've seen death more than once. Don't worry about me." Jupiter looked back at Meilin and Syaoran. "You are not involved in this fight. Keep out while you still can." She sprinted on her green boots to approach the four Doom & Gloom girls smirking in victory. They knew the outcome already. This girl was going to die with more pain than before. Yue, whatever is disturbing you please fight it! I hope Cerberus finds you Jupiter prayed. This déjà vu was becoming more realistic than the first incident. She had a clear picture on how this was going to turn out as all the Doom & Gloom girls grabbed her using their vines. Her neck, arms and feet bound together as if she was a mummy. Yeah…it was like their first fight in the past. Definitely!

TBC.

It should be the epilogue next.


	14. ch 14

Sincerity to the cherry blossom 14 (final)

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.

AN: You're either going to be disappointed because it's the ending or the fact that not much detail has been given since the very beginning. Either that or it's me being a freak. Sure hope this works out ^_^;; 

****

Cerberus smashed through the window of Yukito's bedroom. The lamp remained lit dimly and the air felt amazingly cold. The guardian beast gasped in horror at the condition he saw his friend in. Yue was in a deep sleep, looking more tired than when he was losing his powers in Yukito's form. 

"Yue, wake up! Sakura-chan and Lady Jupiter needs us!" Cerberus pleaded, shaking Yue's slumbering figure. Who the hell put him in this sleep? Couldn't he hear Cerberus' voice? He had to hear him. This was no ordinary sleep Yue was in. It was undoubtedly part of magic. And unbelievably it felt familiar. 

But Cerberus didn't want to call himself a freak from making up such an assumption. He knew that whoever did this to Yue was watching his every move right this minute. What was important now was to wake Yue up so he could help Jupiter and the others. He was one of the only hopes of stopping these Doom Bloom girls if Jupiter wasn't able to call her friends from Juuban. 

****

_The cherry blossoming tree Clow Reed had grown looked fresh and rich in colour as he sat against the trunk, reading his book during the warm morning of summer. He saw Yue through the round glasses hanging on the tip of his nose. Cerberus was out in the field, chasing what looked to be three butterflies. Clow Reed beckoned him to come sit by the cherry tree. He was sure this was a dream. How else would he be able to see the real Clow Reed again? This wasn't Eriol. _

_"What is troubling you, Yue?" He questioned gently. Yue was being his sombre self, not smiling at anyone or anything. Clow Reed barely saw his creatures smile broadly as he did. The magician was always happy on the saddest and happiest days, it was just amazing how calm this man could be._

_Before Yue had the chance to answer, laughter vibrated behind the walls leading to Clow Reed's house. That laugh! He recognised it very well. Lady Jupiter was with what appeared to be Lady Venus. Yue's grey orbs opened to a new view as he observed the brunette warrior laugh with her friend's jokes. Lady Venus almost reminded him of Princess Serenity though looked like a cheekier twin sister of the Moon Princess. He could see why most of the men in the Moon Palace were attracted to those two females. Their blond hair was as soft as healthy horse manes and admirers wanted to smell the fresh vanilla scent embedded in each strand. _

_But Yue thought someone else was attractive in a different view. Lady Jupiter's auburn strands had a wavy pattern that travelled from left to right in a gentle movement. And her green eyes represented the beautiful essence of nature. Yue wondered if this Sailor Senshi cared for nature as much as Clow Reed did and if her individual strands smelt more of vanilla and other flowers._

_"Oh I see," Clow Reed interfered in Yue's mind. "You admire Lady Jupiter like I do…but not in the same way." _

_Yue frowned as he turned back to his master, " I have this unusual feeling when I see Lady Jupiter. Wherever she is in the Moon Palace, I feel drawn to her; even when she is with friends. My eyes only see her. What does it mean?" To his surprise Clow Reed chuckled at his explanation. "Master?"_

_Clow Reed cleared his throat, "It's called love." Yue looked at him strangely, obviously unsure about this emotion. He loved Clow Reed. Wasn't that the same? His master seemed to have read his mind and went on to say, "Your love and Cerberus' love towards me isn't the same. You love me because I am your master. Or your father if you wish to put it that way. But loving Lady Jupiter isn't the same, Yue. You're attracted to her because she is beautiful and because she is a kind person."_

_Yue admired Clow Reed's talent to help him understand about the society they lived in. He could really ask his master anything about the world and usually Clow Reed would give him an answer straightaway. He watched the brunette head disappear past the brick wall and desperately ran to see if he could look at her again. So he was in love Lady Jupiter. And it was because of her beauty and bravery as a Sailor Senshi. The emotions he had described did give him plenty of sense. Love was peculiar._

_"You care for Sakura in another way of love," Clow Reed said. "Protect Lady Jupiter as though she was Sakura. You might be surprised at what you find out." He stood up to walk back to his house. Yue wanted to protest again but Clow Reed was already gone in a minute. Now he was alone. What did his master mean with what he would find out by protecting Jupiter as though she was Sakura? She wasn't the Clow card mistress. She was a fighter who had other skills that weren't identical to the cherry blossom. She was older than Sakura. Stronger, braver. _

_He didn't realize this dream was getting to his head to put him into deeper thought. He knew he had to get out of it. A familiar voice was calling him to wake up. It seemed so difficult for him to wake up. Why? Wake up Yue. Open your eyes and see who's calling you. Why couldn't Clow Reed come help him? Did he have to understand love on his own? It looked like it, didn't it? Turning his back to the cherry tree and Clow's house. Yue flew away from the grassy field I'll learn by myself. It'll only make sense to me._

****

"Yue! Yue! Wake up!" Cerberus shook his paws on Yue's shoulders and finally removed them when he woke up at long last. The beast wasn't sure how many minutes he had been shaking his friend to interrupt the slumber. Yue sat on his bed, shaking his head. "Why were you so tired? Your powers have been fully restored. Unless you're growing weaker again."

"No…someone gave me a powerful sleep spell," Yue replied tiredly. "I have a feeling it's an old friend."

"Yes, I felt him too. Though we could be both wrong." Cerberus cut to the chase and went on about the real deal, explaining that Sakura, Jupiter and the others were having difficulty against a group of Youmas and they would surely need some help. They didn't waste time as they set out through the window of Yukito's bedroom and flew into the sky back to the town centre in Tomoeda. 

Yue was surprised that Jupiter knew these Doom Gloom girls, as they were the ones who ended the Inner Senshi's lives for the first time. His dream collided with his thoughts while he flew. Emotions towards the Thunder Senshi flooded back into him. What would happen if the ones he loved lost their lives and he wasn't able to save them? Not counting Clow Reed of course. If this was Jupiter then of course he'd be hurt. And with Sakura he'd think he would have failed his duty to protect her. 

These were two people he cared for so deeply in different ways. He promised Touya he would protect his sister and he didn't want to lose that hope so soon. Lady Jupiter, don't sacrifice your honour and bravery. Princess Serenity would be too upset Yue thought, increasing his speed.

"Yue, wait for me!!" Cerberus exclaimed as he followed his friend's lead. Yue was already wide-awake, it seemed.

****

Jupiter screamed in shear pain at the strong electrical power surging her body. This was like a combination of all her attacks put together. It was too powerful to fight against. The Doom & Gloom girls seemed to be repeating history but instead wanted to change the story so that they didn't die. That made unbelievable sense, didn't it? 

"We have to help Jupiter-chan!" Leaving Touya on the ground, Sakura began to run towards the four Doom & Gloom girls surrounding the Thunder Senshi with their thick branches. How could they just stand there and watch a friend let herself be hurt? That was complete insanity. Jupiter's voice forced her to stop and look into her struggling eyes. 

"Sakura, get away please!" She said. "I'm taking these girls with me. It's the only way!" The Doom & Gloom girls immediately had fear written on their faces when she said this. Didn't this bring back lovely memories? If she wanted to kill them herself then that would mean they would ALL die this time. Previously two lost their lives and the other three perished separately, thanks to the other Inner Senshi. 

Sakura was too shocked to move back so Meilin helped her. 

"Listen to her, Sakura. She knows what she's doing," Meilin stated encouragingly. "We have to trust her." 

Jupiter pulled a hopeful smile to Sakura before electricity enveloped her entire body. The Supreme Thunder charged into her with pain as well as success. Her lightning was giving the Doom & Gloom girls real pain. They were trying hard not to let the electricity destroy every part of themselves. Oh but it was too much for them, wasn't it? Jupiter wasn't afraid of death. She died enough times to know what the other side was like. Makoto-chan, no! Why do you do this? Sakura pleadingly pondered. She couldn't go in and help otherwise she'd be affected by the dancing of electricity. It was too dangerous to get near to.

Inner Senshi, Sakura, Syaoran, Touya, Yue…everyone I know. Forgive me Jupiter didn't care about her tears falling down her cheeks as the thunder continued to torture her and the others. The third Doom & Gloom girl gave into the pain and exploded to her death. The leader screamed an agonising no when she saw her partner go. Come on just pump up more power then you can eliminate every one of them. Those were the words Jupiter kept giving to her brain. 

But it seemed that this was her maximum level. Nothing was changing. The leader, the second and fifth Doom & Gloom girl remained alive but struggling to fight the electrical currents. Swept dripped down the sides of Jupiter's head as she forced her power to unleash. She knew it was likely to kill her but that was fate, wasn't it? 

"I can't watch this!" Sakura wept, turned her back and held onto Touya again. Syaoran and Meilin held her close and did the same. Out of nowhere the screams from the Doom & Gloom girls increased in volume and desperation. The three young fighters pivoted round to see what was going on and instant smiles of relief formed on their lips. Cerberus's fire came to strike each of the Doom & Gloom girls. They screeched as Yue's crystals sliced off the current travelling into them through their vines. 

"Sailor Jupiter!" Syaoran, Sakura and Meilin yelled simultaneously, realizing Sailor Jupiter was now in the air, falling down. Yue flew in to catch her in time. He was completely horrified by how empty and lifeless her body felt. Her eyes opened but only halfway.

"Lady Jupiter," Yue said her name in a whisper. 

She let out a pant when she recognised his long, white hair and grey irises, "Y-Yue…" Her head knocked back against the inside of his left arm and she was unconscious. It was Yue's turn to gasp now. Presently there were two bodies that were out cold. And it just made the tension a lot worse for everyone tonight as they came over to see the second lifeless figure, including Tomoyo who insisted she was okay to be out here rather than her hiding place. Yue felt the icy temperature begin to spread on Jupiter's skin. She wasn't dead, was she? She couldn't die just like that. What would the other Inner Senshi say? 

Cerberus landed next to Yue, "We have to get rid of these three. NOW Yue. There isn't anything we can do to save her!" The Doom & Gloom girls flew above everyone's heads, encircling them so they couldn't escape anywhere. They smiled evilly at them even though they were still battered from the vicious electric shock Jupiter had given them a minute ago. They didn't want to give up that easily. The leader threw a thick fireball at the group on the ground but Sakura refused to let them hit her friends and used the Shield card. 

"Don't think you've won already!" Sakura boomed angrily. "You'll pay for hurting Jupiter-chan!" 

"Indeed they will," A calm new voice came into the open to cause everyone's head to turn. But the voice was definitely familiar – even to the Doom & Gloom girls. The shadow came underneath a lamppost and it pretty much sent utter wheezes of surprise. There was just one person who wore glasses, navy blue robes and held a wand that was as big as Sakura's. Hiiragizawa Eriol had come back to Tomoeda. 

"Eriol!!" Sakura's intonation was the loudest as she released the Shield card's power. 

"Master, what are you doing here?" The Doom & Gloom girl leader asked in amazement as she and the other girls flew to the ground to greet him. Master? What is Clow thinking? They tried to kill us. Did he send them to kill Lady Jupiter? Cerberus thought, looking at Yue who was likely to be asking the same question to himself. It WAS Clow Reed's magic that Yue and Cerberus had been sensing in Yukito's house. Thank goodness it wasn't down to freaking out. 

"I have told you many times not to call me master," Eriol calmly argued. "Your real master is dead."

"Queen Beryl is dead because of HER kind!" The fifth Doom Bloom girl accusingly pointed to the stationary body of the Thunder Senshi held Yue's arms. Clow Reed's cool manner hadn't left him in his reincarnation as he smiled at the so-called servants. 

"I know," Eriol replied simply. "Anyway, evil should never be toyed with nor should it be resurrected and that is why…" The three Doom & Gloom girls looked in despair at Eriol, not hoping for the worst that was to come. "…that is why I'm sending you back to as you were. You've provided me with enough trouble and hard work for the Sailor Senshi." 

"What? We won't have another chance to gain revenge for Queen Beryl," the leader said. 

"I only brought you back to life just to make this a part of a test. You never will be resurrected again." Eriol's indigo blue eyes moved to meet their eyes and his wand ascended. A bright light came from the top of his wand, aiming towards the three Doom & Gloom girls. It started to burn them. Burn them as powerfully as Cerberus would have done. Their screams echoed together as they exploded in the nightly air. An eerie silence came between Eriol and Sakura's friends. He walked closer to them but Meilin stood in his path.

"It's all right, Meilin." Syaoran nodded to her. Hesitantly she sidestepped to let him pass. Eriol gave him an innocent 'thank you' smile to the Chinese boy and walked towards Yue. He saw the Bishoujo sitting in his creation's arms and studied her closely. 

"She is more amazing than I heard she was," Eriol commented. "Bring her down for me please." Yue brought Jupiter to the ground so his master could see her at a better view. His wand came to his side. Everyone else gathered and watched him curiously. 

"What are you going to do, Eriol? Sakura questioned. His hand came on top of Jupiter's face, above her nose and eyes. A quick flash spread from her face to the feet. Eriol's hand pulled away and he looked down at the Sailor Senshi. He moved over to see Touya and did the exact same thing. Everyone was startled when they saw Jupiter and Touya's shoulders suddenly flinch and their eyes opened. Jupiter sat up and felt a migraine sink in. She noticed a strong hand on her left arm. Not only did it feel nice but it was comforting her too. Her emerald eyes switched to her right hand side. 

"Are you all right?" Yue asked sympathetically. 

She nodded silently then saw Touya sit up as well, "Touya, how do you feel?"

"Tired…in need of a shower," He replied and turned from the sound of a laugh. His eyes sharpened at the recognisable figure. "Eriol! What are you doing back here?" Jupiter blinked and realized she didn't see the new boy kneeling in front of her. Who was this? There was something oddly familiar about him that was unexplainable to her. He looked like he was the same age as Sakura and her friends. He had some weird costume and a large wand. Did he just do something to her and Touya?

"Who are you?" Jupiter pondered at the tiny boy and felt her muscles all over her body. "What did you do to me? And Touya as well."

"I healed both your wounds. You may know me as Clow Reed…" Eriol silenced her natural amazement as he went on. "But I'm merely a reincarnation of him. In this form I am known to everyone as Hiiragizawa Eriol." Jupiter scratched her head confusingly. How could this little boy be the powerful magician called Clow Reed? This whole reason for being in Tomoeda has pretty much given her more paranormal or mystery to her life. 

She thought Clow Reed was taller and friendlier. This Eriol guy didn't feel like the same Clow Reed she had heard and remembered. Maybe this was why Yue was giving him a solemn stare. Usually he wouldn't do that if it was his master but like Eriol said he was a reincarnation. It didn't necessarily mean he had all the past memories in his cerebral.

Eriol grinned and straightened his robe, "I can imagine that you want to know more on the reason that brought you to Tomoeda, don't you Lady Jupiter?" The Thunder Senshi snorted humorously and stood opposite him. 

"I'm sure everyone would like to know," She added slyly. Eriol proposed that they went to his house to speak and not disturb the quiet streets. Well now that the Doom Bloom girls had returned to their rightful sins the rest of the public were now fast asleep and unaware of the fierce fight that had gone on all night. 

****

Eriol sat in his usual armchair, which was where the real Clow Reed sat in during the past. Everybody sat by an individual chair around the dining table though Yue was the only person who preferred to stand up. Since Eriol moved back to England none of the cloths that covered the armchair or the main dining table had been taken off and the chairs were what seemed to have remained clean and uncovered. Makoto got off her chair to stand next to Yue by the window.

"Where would you like me to begin then, Lady Jupiter?" Eriol asked. 

"Please, Clow Reed uh I mean Eriol just Makoto, ok?" Makoto corrected firmly then became serious again. "OK I wanna know something really important - was it you who brought the other Youmas back to life and caused those trees to become real?" Dammit that cool exterior of his was beginning to honestly bug her. When was there a time he would NOT smile? Eriol may have a sweet Bishounen appearance but it was somehow affecting Makoto's confidence to question him properly. She guessed that his ongoing smile meant that his reply was a yes. There was no need to argue.

"How could you bring Sakura more danger again?" Kero-chan slammed at Eriol. "Last time you said it was a test to help her with transforming the Clow cards. What's the reason this time? We almost got ourselves hurt in the last few days because of what you created."

Eriol's casual blue eyes turned back to Makoto, "I believe YOU may have an idea, *Makoto* as to what your reason for being here is." This guy is rude for ignoring Kero-chan's question Makoto thought. Well maybe the reason for being in Tomoeda was obvious, wasn't it? She had to protect Sakura from…something. What if she was protecting her from nothing? How embarrassing would that sound? Or was that the truth after all? Makoto felt a little hesitant to share her views on what she believed in and looked at Yue for some help. He didn't seem to show any support hence it meant she had to figure this out herself. 

"What was I protecting Sakura from?" Makoto asked the big question. 

Eriol pulled his glasses back up on his nose, "Would you like me to tell you?" Makoto held back the temptation to call this guy stupid or spit out the word 'duh' to his face. Sakura and her friends leaned over the table to stare at Eriol with curious glances. Wasn't it apparent that every person in this room wanted to know what this whole scenario was about? Makoto crossed her arms over her chest, waiting to hear the reason. "I guess you do want me to tell you then…"

"Spit it out, Eriol. I'm tired," Makoto said impatiently, faking a yawn. 

"Yeah so am I, Eriol. Get it out now," Touya added, using the same sarcastic tone as her. Sakura hit his left arm to tell him to cut off the teasing. Eriol giggled at the impatience floating in these young children. This was what made the kids so curious and lacking general knowledge of the world.

"To be honest, Makoto, there was no enemy. I brought back the half-lion half-dog Youma and the Doom & Gloom girls you remembered so well. I was the one who created the other monsters and gave you and Yue those special dreams." Eriol sat back in his chair, noticing how everyone's faces went into disbelief, mainly from Makoto. Her green eyes rolled angrily. She really couldn't believe this was happening. So she did all this protecting. All this sacrificial work against the Doom Bloom girls – for nothing!!!! It was all for no purpose or strategy to threaten the new evil she had to combat against. That special dream had to be the first time she dreamt of Sakura. But what did he mean by Yue's dream? When did he have a dream? 

Oh she understood now. It was when he was away from the battlefield while she was against the Doom Bloom girls by herself in the town centre. She didn't care what Yue's dream signified just yet. She wanted to know more about her presence. Makoto stormed over to Eriol's chair; her rough hands slammed on the arms firmly. 

"Was this a test for me?" She queried sharply. Eriol's face still had the charming façade on. "What was the test about then? Come on, oh great Clow Reed! Tell me! Tell us!" She gestured to the other people sitting behind her. Eriol touched her other remaining hand on the other arm of his chair. Oh so now this was going to be a palm reading session, was it? Makoto truly couldn't get this guy. How was he supposed to be Clow Reed? The master that Cerberus and Yue loved as a father figure. 

"Lady Jupiter, although I don't recall every single moment in the Moon Palace, I remember the main compliments Princess Serenity had given about you in person," Eriol spoke warmly as he held Makoto's hand in a gentle fashion. The girl gulped at the mention of her princess. She had known what the Princess had said about her from Yue's summary. "I just took the name the princess gave to you, which was Senshi of Protection and put it to the test using my methods. I wanted to see how far you would go to help young Sakura-chan here." 

He nodded to the cherry blossom who could merely raise her eyebrow more intriguingly and listen further through his explanation, "It would be obvious that you would do all you could to protect your fellow Senshi so I thought about giving you a test on someone you had never met."

Makoto threw her hand away from Eriol and snarled, "What's the judgment then? Did I pass or not?" 

"Of course you did," Eriol confirmed. Makoto smashed her face into the window with pure frustration I don't believe this. What the hell was she doing here then? What did this mean to her? "You should all go back home now. The test is over." Geez he sounded like an examiner ending a class examination. Maybe he was a teacher in his past before the reincarnation. Meilin, Tomoyo and Kero-chan left the room in a pack whilst Touya, Sakura, Syaoran, Yue and Makoto stayed behind with Eriol. They all impassively looked at him, expecting more answers.

"OK now that the reason for testing me is out, let's move on. Why make Sakura the victim? She's a kid for goodness sake, Eriol and Kero-chan was right about you risking her life again," Makoto pinpointed heatedly. 

"Do you feel a connection to Sakura and Touya?" Was Clow Reed the kind of person who spoke in riddles and gave you hints to solve mysteries? Ami would have been the best person to solve these things. But this was a personal aspect for Makoto. She had to work this one out for herself, wouldn't she? The question Eriol had given to her sounded sufficient. It certainly showed relevance to her closeness to the Kinomoto siblings. Makoto's head nodded slowly.

"Makoto, don't be afraid to think the impossible," Eriol stated as he observed the discouraging expression in her eyes. "What you may be thinking is quite truthful." He smirked proudly. "I can definitely see the family resemblance between you and Sakura." Makoto and Sakura were both taken aback at his sudden release of secrecy. 

"Are you telling the truth, Eriol-san?" Sakura demanded timidly. Clow Reed's reincarnation bowed to them. The cherry blossom, the peach blossom and the sincerity of wood as siblings! This was quite remarkable. Sakura, Touya and Makoto exchanged startled faces. What could they say? The other people who had the room also heard the news and they too were just as shocked. Makoto could tell the others were looking at Sakura then at her, trying to see the identical features they both had. 

It did make perfect sense most certainly since Eriol told the secret. Makoto was protecting her younger sister all this time. This wasn't Usagi or any other Inner Senshi. This was Sakura. Kinomoto Sakura to be precise. Speaking of names. What was Mako's real name then? Was it Kinomoto Makoto? Perhaps her real father shortened it to Kino because it sounded unusual. What was going to happen to her now that she had found two lost siblings? Eriol had told everyone for the second time to go home and rest. For once she agreed with him. 

****

The rest of the week leading to Friday sped by after the 'test' finally ended for Makoto. She managed to pass her training in catering at Chez Nori and kept up-to-date with her latest subjects in Juuban High. Nobody was a pain in the neck to her anymore and it seemed like any normal school day for her. She wasn't sure how to react these days. Should she be happy that she passed Clow Reed's test and more of her family? Or should she be sad that she was leaving Tomoeda?

The test Clow Reed had given helped her learn that she was a true Senshi of protection. She would protect anyone who was close to her – whether it she was part of her family or a friend. Although all this was a test, Makoto did leave one final reminder to Eriol to not do this sort of experiment on her again. It was totally realistic. Who knows what other circumstances would turn up in this little test he devised? Sailor Jupiter could have become a mental fighter or a more violent person.

As Makoto reached the Kinomoto residence, she found a huge group of cheering people hurtling towards her. Sakura, Tomoyo and Meilin were at the front whilst Syaoran tagged behind. Kero-chan flew around Makoto's shoulders. 

"Hi!" Makoto said.

"I can't believe you're going home already," Meilin complained. "We didn't get a chance to have a sparring session at all."

"We don't need a sparring session. I've seen your moves. You're good too, Syaoran." Makoto smiled. The Chinese boy blushed as always. "The coach leaves in twenty minutes. It was great being friends with you. Who would have thought this test would give me friends too?" Her eyes concentrated mainly on Sakura. She could feel herself becoming emotional. A pat on the right shoulder made her turn round and she prepared to hit the person whoever dared to creep behind her. She then saw it was Touya. "What did I say before?"

"Sorry, couldn't help myself," Touya sheepishly admitted then looked down at the other kids. "Would you guys mind leaving us?" Meilin whined offensively in reaction. "Kaijuu, you can stay here." Sakura apologetically glanced to her friends for her brother's need of privacy. After all it was a family thing, wasn't it? Grimacing a little at first then understanding what the older boy wanted, Tomoyo and Syaoran gave a firm nod together to give Touya their word. Syaoran held Sakura's hand briefly, smiled sweetly then left with Tomoyo and Meilin. Kero-chan flew to Sakura's room window and watched from above.

"We'll meet again someday, Makoto and we'll have a sparring session for sure." Meilin waved then ran off. 

Now the siblings were alone. Touya, Makoto and Sakura looked each other then spontaneously moved closer. Makoto was in the middle as two pairs of arms embraced her from either side. This felt so comforting. So normal. Like a real family! Makoto had always wanted a brother and a sister. Older or younger didn't matter to her. Fate had granted her a wish, didn't it? Eriol explained that Sakura and Touya were like her and their memories of their past family were erased. From being in both Touya and Sakura's arms, family events came back to Makoto. It was just magical. 

Did she have Eriol or Clow Reed to thank? She thought that wasn't important. Another figure was missing from this group. Yue! 

"Where's Yue?" Makoto asked. 

"I think he's still talking to Eriol from last night," Touya guessed confidently. "I have a feeling he has a lot to ask him." I wanted to say goodbye to him Makoto's face saddened as she saw the coach appear from the left sided street. It was time to leave Tomoeda. Her work was done and she succeeded in two tests. One was the catering and the other was Clow Reed's test. Why wasn't Yue here? Makoto wanted to stare into his hypnotic eyes again. Weird they may seem but they were full of imaginative wonders. What would Yue want to talk to Clow Reed about? It was his business. Makoto didn't want to be too nosy.

"Say goodbye to Yue and Yukito for me, will you? The driver is impatient when it comes to latecomers," She said to her siblings. "Write to me, Sakura. Keep in touch, Touya." She gave him a high five, picked up her bags and headed to the packed coach. Her head turned back to the two observers waving farewell to her. She'll come back to see them. She'll guarantee it.

****

Makoto re-read Sakura's letter while she lazily laid on her back on the bedcovers. The little cherry blossom had sent her a handmade teddy in a parcel this morning and it was sitting next to Makoto's pillow in a slumping posture. Makoto had finished writing her evaluation on what she thought about the catering training week and most of her sentences were full of positive feeling. The Sailor Senshi work gave her such life, her teacher told her she might get an A overall from taking a first glance at the evaluation.

Makoto forgot to close the window and wondered why the cold air was breezing onto her feet. She placed the letter down on the bed, moved her curtains away and reached to close the window. The face she failed to see yesterday suddenly appeared on the other side. Yue floated in front of her dazzled eyes.

"Yue!" Her hand covered her mouth.

"I'm sorry to not see you go," Yue said. "Can I come in?" Could he? Of course he could. A guest like him was welcome anytime. Makoto made sure the window was widely ajar as Yue folded his wings and entered into Makoto's cosy apartment. She wanted to protest about ringing her doorbell but didn't want to ruin Yue's fascination while he looked around her bedroom. He picked up the teddy bear Sakura knitted for her. 

"Oh yeah, Sakura sent that to me this morning. Cute, huh?" Makoto stated. Yue smiled. Oh whoa. He smiled! A warm, sweet smile.  Makoto couldn't hold back her gasp very easily, could she? Yue smiled like a dream. Apart from his mysterious and hypnotic grey eyes and smooth white hair, he had a wonderful smile. She had more reasons to say why he was amazing. "Uh Yue, what did you talk to Clow Reed about yesterday?" His head straightened as he looked at the table.  Thick, smooth whiteness swirled in the air as his head turned back to look at her. Makoto could feel herself become stationary while she stared into his eyes. Yue took her hand and pressed against his chest. His right hand trailed a line down her cheek. 

"Lady Jupiter, I have this emotion," He stammered. "I…love you." He couldn't think of other words to help him describe how he felt.

"What?" Makoto replied. "Was that what you talked about to Eriol?" He nodded.  She tilted his face so she could look into his grey eyes. Was he embarrassed about his honesty? Makoto couldn't stop the small flush deepening on her cheeks as her head repeated his three words.  Yue WAS embarrassed and shy.  Just like any boy would be. "Oh Yue, I…I had no idea."

"Lady Jupiter, seeing you reminds me of Sakura," Yue said. "You have the same hair and eyes as her but that's not my reason..." He pressed his hand hard around Makoto's fingers, determined not to give her another meaning.  She could feel his heartbeat in his chest.  It wasn't equally consecutive as normal hearts were.  "Makoto, since I first saw you in the Silver Millennium I have admired your courage and wisdom to protect and defend.  I thought you were braver than Cerberus and me put together whenever you came to fight defensively for Sakura.  You see you are special, especially to me."

She wasn't sure how to cope with the compliments Yue was giving her.  Nobody often told her she was special in the Sailor Senshi sense.  Everything involved either ice-skating or cooking.  But Yue was telling her she was one of the rare Sailor Senshi to be considered special and wise.  She reacted in slight shock when she finally felt the warmth of Yue's hand against her cheek.  Her hand glided through his front white strands smoothly and then touched his soft skin.  He was so beautiful.  She didn't know how else to describe him.  He was a beautiful angel.  Not many boys were like that.  Yue was special to her as well now.

"Yue, thank you for telling me this.  I…I'm honoured," Makoto said in a stammer.  She lightly kissed him on his right cheek then moved to meet his lips.  Her hands cupped his face gently.  It was a sign to tell him to relax.  Yue let the kiss flow into him.  This was the first time he kissed a human.  Clow Reed didn't teach him this.  He only explained the theory of love and human emotions.  

With his arms pressing on her shoulders, Yue pulled away from the kiss and said, "I understand emotions now.  I know what love is." Makoto smiled and came into an embrace through his arms.  He was warm and safe.  Yue could hold her like this and not let her physical presence leave him Thank you, Master.  

****

"You are welcome, Yue," Eriol said on the roof, observing his creature from above. "You are truly welcome." Smiling, he silently disappeared into the dark clouds in a quick flash.  His duty was done.  It was time to return home.

END


End file.
